Genetics and Genomics of Cotton Leaf Curl Disease, Its Viral Causal Agents and Whitefly Vector: A Way Forward to Sustain Cotton Fiber Security

• Published in: Frontiers in plant science Vol. 8; p. 1157
• Main Authors: Rahman, Mehboob-Ur, Khan, Ali Q, Rahmat, Zainab, Iqbal, Muhammad A, Zafar, Yusuf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 04.07.2017
• Subjects: begomoviruses; CLCuD; genome editing; introgression breeding; marker-assisted breeding; Plant Science; genome editing; CLCuD; introgression breeding; marker-assisted breeding; begomoviruses
• ISSN: 1664-462X; 1664-462X
• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2017.01157

Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) after its first epidemic in 1912 in Nigeria, has spread to different cotton growing countries including United States, Pakistan, India, and China. The disease is of viral origin-transmitted by the whitefly , which is difficult to control because of the prevalence of multiple virulent viral strains or related species. The problem is further complicated as the CLCuD causing virus complex has a higher recombination rate. The availability of alternate host crops like tomato, okra, etc., and practicing mixed type farming system have further exaggerated the situation by adding synergy to the evolution of new viral strains and vectors. Efforts to control this disease using host plant resistance remained successful using two gene based-resistance that was broken by the evolution of new resistance breaking strain called Burewala virus. Development of transgenic cotton using both pathogen and non-pathogenic derived approaches are in progress. In future, screening for new forms of host resistance, use of DNA markers for the rapid incorporation of resistance into adapted cultivars overlaid with transgenics and using genome editing by CRISPR/Cas system would be instrumental in adding multiple layers of defense to control the disease-thus cotton fiber production will be sustained.