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The Distribution of Enset Pests and Pathogens and a Genomic Survey of Enset Xanthomonas Wilt

View ORCID ProfileZerihun Yemataw, View ORCID ProfileJames S. Borrell, View ORCID ProfileManosh Kumar Biswas, View ORCID ProfileOliver White, View ORCID ProfileWendawek Mengesha, View ORCID ProfileSadik Muzemil, Jaypal N. Darbar, View ORCID ProfileIan Ondo, View ORCID ProfilePat J.S. Heslop Harrison, View ORCID ProfileGuy Blomme, View ORCID ProfilePaul Wilkin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.144261
Zerihun Yemataw
1Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Hawassa, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Ethiopia
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James S. Borrell
2Department of Natural Capital and Plant Health, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
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  • For correspondence: J.borrell@kew.org
Manosh Kumar Biswas
3Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, LR1 7RH, UK
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Oliver White
2Department of Natural Capital and Plant Health, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
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Wendawek Mengesha
4Department of Biology, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia
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Sadik Muzemil
1Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Hawassa, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Ethiopia
5School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
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Jaypal N. Darbar
3Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, LR1 7RH, UK
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Ian Ondo
2Department of Natural Capital and Plant Health, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
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Pat J.S. Heslop Harrison
3Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, LR1 7RH, UK
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Guy Blomme
6Bioversity International, Addis Ababa office, c/o ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Paul Wilkin
2Department of Natural Capital and Plant Health, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK
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Abstract

Mapping the distribution of crop pests and pathogens is essential to safeguard food security and sustainable livelihoods. However, these data are unavailable for many neglected and underutilised crops, particularly in developing countries. In Ethiopia, the world’s largest historic recipient of food aid, the indigenous banana relative enset (Ensete ventricosum) is threatened by multiple pests and pathogens whilst providing the staple starch source for 20 million people. Foremost among these is Xanthomonas Wilt of enset (EXW), caused by Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum (Xvm), a globally important disease of bananas (Musa sp.) that likely originated in enset. Here we collate 1069 farm surveys to map the distribution and relative prevalence of enset pests and pathogens across the entire enset growing region. We find that EXW is the most frequently encountered pathogen, and that farmers consistently ranked EXW as the most significant constraint on enset agriculture. Our surveys also showed that corm rot, and the pests root mealybug, mole rat and porcupine are all virtually ubiquitous. Finally, we apply genotyping-by-sequencing to the detection of Xvm and demonstrate that it is present even in asymptomatic domesticated and wild enset samples, suggesting that management of plants displaying symptoms alone may not be sufficient to reduce disease transmission. Holistic understanding of pests and pathogen distributions in enset may have significant benefits for both food security in Ethiopia, and preventing proliferation in related crops such as banana across central and east Africa.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • ↵† Joint first authors

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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The Distribution of Enset Pests and Pathogens and a Genomic Survey of Enset Xanthomonas Wilt
Zerihun Yemataw, James S. Borrell, Manosh Kumar Biswas, Oliver White, Wendawek Mengesha, Sadik Muzemil, Jaypal N. Darbar, Ian Ondo, Pat J.S. Heslop Harrison, Guy Blomme, Paul Wilkin
bioRxiv 2020.06.18.144261; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.144261
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The Distribution of Enset Pests and Pathogens and a Genomic Survey of Enset Xanthomonas Wilt
Zerihun Yemataw, James S. Borrell, Manosh Kumar Biswas, Oliver White, Wendawek Mengesha, Sadik Muzemil, Jaypal N. Darbar, Ian Ondo, Pat J.S. Heslop Harrison, Guy Blomme, Paul Wilkin
bioRxiv 2020.06.18.144261; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.144261

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