ISSN 2360-7971
Abstract
Studying phytoviruses is crucial to understand their dynamics and design effective disease management strategies. This study seeks to present an overview of the current state of virological research pertaining to banana, cassava, potato, sweet potato, taro, and yam within sub-Saharan Africa over the past 25 years. To accomplish this, an extensive literature review was performed, concentrating on peer-reviewed articles published in English. Key data were extracted for each crop, including the year of publication, the sub-Saharan country where the study was conducted, and the virus name, genus, and family. Six hundred and seventy-two articles were identified in the literature. All crops under study have been subjected to virological studies at least once in the selected geographic location. Studies on cassava were conducted in most countries and were by far the most published among all the other crops. Taro had the fewest publications. Uganda is the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have published articles on viruses infecting all six crops. Viruses infecting banana root and tuber crops belong to 23 genera across 14 families. This analysis underscores cassava as the most comprehensively studied crop from a virological standpoint and highlights the pressing need to expand research efforts to encompass viruses affecting other crops.
Keywords: Cassava, potato, sweet potato, taro, yam, food security, research and development, plant virology