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Towards molecular enhancement of cassava for resistance to cassava brown streak disease I. Ingelbrecht, Y. Lokko, A. Raji, C. Herron, A. Dixon, N. Mahungu, S. Winter Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is one of the most important root crops in developing countries. It performs well on marginal soils, can withstand droughts and is a food security crop in many parts of Africa. Currently a pandemic of severe cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) is taking place in the coastal areas of eastern and southern Africa. The causal agent has recently been identified as the cassava brown streak virus (CBSV); this opens up avenues for its control with the use of modern biotechnologies. The concept of pathogen-derived resistance (PDR) postulates that nucleic acid sequences derived from a pathogen can be used to engineer resistance in susceptible hosts. Since its formulation in 1985, the PDR strategy has been successfully used for engineering virus resistance in many crop plants, including squash, potato and papaya, up to the level of commercialization. A project was recently initiated at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to produce cassava cultivars or landraces or both with broad-spectrum resistance to CBSD through genetic transformation that complements ongoing efforts for CBSD control via conventional breeding. An overview of the project will be presented as well as preliminary results on molecular characterization of CBSV. |