Biochemical alterations in banana cultivars infected systemically by banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV)

Abstract

Virus infection in plants lead to the alteration of physiological, biochemical and metabolic processes such as total protein synthesis, activation or synthesis of defence peptides and proteins, rapid production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as synthesis of phenols. Banana Bract Mosaic Disease (BBrMD) is one of the most destructive viral diseases of banana, however, information on physiological and biochemical changes during banana-BBrMV interaction is still unexplained. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted to find out the quantifiable changes in biochemical parameters such as total proteins, phenolic compounds, peroxidase (PO), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), catalase (CAT) ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in leaves of commercial banana cultivar Poovan (AAB) and a plantain cv. Nendran (AAB). The amount of phenols, total protein, GPX and SOD activities were significantly higher in leaves of BBrMV infected plants of both the cultivars over the healthy plants, whereas PO, PPO, CAT and APX activities reduced in infected than healthy plants. Overall the results suggest that BBrMV infection induces significant changes in biochemical and enzyme levels leading to irreversible symptom development and significant yield loss.