Is the best resistance strategy against begomoviruses yet to come? A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The worldwide spread of Geminiviruses and its vector has been attributed to the high rate of recombination, mutation, presence of alternate hosts, transport of plant material, global human activity along with global trade, new agricultural practices and climate change; therefore, the most severe viral diseases among crops have grown in almost all regions of the world, including cassava viral diseases in Africa, cotton leaf curl disease in Pakistan, and multiple diseases related to tomatoes, legumes and cucurbits in India and all over the world. Begomovirus is the major and largest genus of Geminiviridae which has shown a worldwide increase in its variations and distribution by affecting previously unaffected plants. The increasing population has augmented the demand for a sustainable agriculture boost, but begomoviruses have become a continual threat to the world’s agriculture. Numerous control strategies have been used for the viral invasion of the world as pathogens but begomoviruses continually overcome the control methods, and this has generated a need to end this competition between researchers and begomoviruses. The present review summarizes all strategies used against begomoviruses and provides a comprehensive comparison among all control methods, their drawbacks, and future insights.

A Review of Interactions between Plants and Whitefly-Transmitted Begomoviruses

“…Recent research has extensively explored gene silencing techniques, such as RNAi, virusinduced gene silencing, and CRISPR/Cas9 to bolster plant resistance against pathogens, improve drought tolerance, and engineer the ligno-cellulosic pathway. Within plants, small RNAs (sRNAs), like microRNA (miRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA), play a pivotal role in their defense against pathogens [131,132], while it is commonly believed that plant defenses mediate whitefly-begomovirus interactions [94,133,134].…”