African cassava mosaic virus
Encyclopedia
African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV, ICTV approved acronym) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Geminiviridae
that may cause either a mosaic appearance to plant leaves, or chlorosis, a loss of chlorophyll
. In Manihot esculenta (cassava) , a highly valuable African food crop, the virus is the only known plant virus for cassava and causes severe mosaic. Cassava is a food crop in many places throughout the tropics and subtropics as a source of carbohydrate
s, but the transmission and severity of disease for cassava in Africa is greatest with ACMV.
Geminiviridae
Geminiviruses are plant viruses which have single-stranded circular DNA genomes encoding genes that diverge in both directions from a virion strand origin of replication . According to the Baltimore classification they are considered class II viruses...
that may cause either a mosaic appearance to plant leaves, or chlorosis, a loss of chlorophyll
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from the Greek words χλωρος, chloros and φύλλον, phyllon . Chlorophyll is an extremely important biomolecule, critical in photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from light...
. In Manihot esculenta (cassava) , a highly valuable African food crop, the virus is the only known plant virus for cassava and causes severe mosaic. Cassava is a food crop in many places throughout the tropics and subtropics as a source of carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
s, but the transmission and severity of disease for cassava in Africa is greatest with ACMV.