Potato apical leaf curl disease: current status and perspectives on a disease caused by tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus

• Published in: Journal of plant diseases and protection (2006) Vol. 128; no. 4; pp. 897 - 911
• Main Authors: Kumar, Ravinder, Tiwari, Rahul Kumar, Jeevalatha, Arjunan, Siddappa, Sundaresha, Shah, Mohd. Abas, Sharma, Sanjeev, Sagar, Vinay, Kumar, Manoj, Chakrabarti, Swarup Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-08-2021
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Life Sciences; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Review; Potato; Whitefly; Geminivirus; Diagnostic; Leaf curl; Management; Detection
• ISSN: 1861-3829; 1861-3837
• DOI: 10.1007/s41348-021-00463-w

Potato apical leaf curl disease (PALCD) caused by a unique bipartite virus [tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV)] has emerged as a global threat. With the inception of ToLCNDV in 1995, it was causing curling/leaf mosaics in tomato, brinjal, chili, okra, papaya, cucurbits, etc., but under the changing climate, overlapping planting and boost-up in
Bemisia tabaci
populations, it shifted on potato crops. The first observation of PALCD as leaf curling/stunting of the potato plant was recorded in 1999 from northern India, and now it is spreading at an alarming rate in India. Recent outbreaks of ToLCNDV on various solanaceous, cucurbit crops, and weeds in other countries as well as the exchange of genetic and planting material of potato between the borders have made it a potential threat to potato production worldwide. To mitigate this disease, no antiviral products as well as resistant cultivars are known yet except Kufri Bahar; only planting of the healthy seed potato is the most appropriate method in the practice. The management of the disease mainly depends on diagnostics, control of insect vectors, rouging, and seed certification. These preventive measures are not enough to fulfill the food demand of the increasing population, and therefore, some concrete alternatives should be explored. In this context, the development of resistant varieties through conventional/molecular breeding or the use of advanced techniques like genome editing to edit susceptibility genes could be the future approach to combat the disease. This review highlights the current status of the pathogen and its genome, origin, evolution, and diversity, virus-vector relationship, disease symptoms, diagnostics, and management strategies.