Project Description

India is the leading producer of bananas in the world with a production of 297 million metric tons and about 97 per cent of this is consumed domestically. Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) and Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV) are two important viruses that infect banana plants. BBTV is known to be the most destructive virus of banana and BBrMV is known to spread very fast and infect all varieties of banana. The structure of viruses has been studied using electron microscopy. Recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) have enabled near-atomic resolution electron density maps of viruses and coat proteins (CPs) using single particle analysis (SPA). This has shed light on the molecular interactions between the CPs and viral genetic material vital to understanding the viral infection mechanisms and spread throughout the host. In this study, we propose to obtain the high-resolution structure of BBTV and BBrMV using SPA cryoEM thereby enabling us to better understand the viral infection mechanism. This will also aid further in the development of preventive agrochemicals against these viruses.