Virus Infecting Forest Tree (Treculia africanaDecne) and its Characterisation in Oban Forest Cross River State

Treculia africana Decne also called African breadfruit is a forest tree in the family Moraceae. The tree crop has been reported to play significant role in medicine, nutrition and agroforestry. A visit to Oban forest in Cross River State revealed mosaic symptoms on the leaves. This study was aimed at characterising and identifying virus infecting the tree crop, employing RT-PCR and gene sequence analysis as diagnostic tools. The infected leave samples were tested against RT-PCR using virus specific primer. The result of the study revealed that the amplified PCR generated a single product sequence which tested positive against RT-PCR. Sequence comparison with other virus sequences using BLASTn available at NCBI showed that the sequence has 92 % sequence identity with Alfafa mosaic virus (AMV) with accession number of MK607974.1 confirming that the virus under study is AMV. This is the first report of virus infection on tree crop in Cross River State, Nigeria.