Research Projects

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. This study aims to purify BBTV and BBrMV from infected plant tissue samples and carry out single particle analysis (SPA) cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) to obtain the high-resolution structure of the viral capsid and coat proteins (CPs). The viruses will be purified in several steps involving density gradient centrifugation and dialysis. The purified virus will be vitrified and imaged in a state of the art transmission electron microscope with a direct electron detector housed in any of the new national facilities being established in the country. The high-resolution structure will be obtained by image processing and 3D refinement in Relion3.0 software. The structure obtained will provide insights into molecular details of the interaction between CPs as well as the CP and the viral genetic material. The assembly of the viral capsid is a key step in the infection and spread of the virus through the host plant. In future, the structural details could be used to develop preventive agrochemicals against the viruses as well as for design of targeted detection kits. Further molecular studies will provide detailed insights into the viral infection mechanisms in plants.