Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology

ISSN 2736-1624

Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology ISSN 7295-2849 Vol. 9 (4), pp. 001-007, April, 2019. © International Scholars Journals

Review

Enhancing banana weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus) resistance by plant genetic modification: A perspective

Andrew Kiggundu1,2*, Michael Pillay4, Altus Viljoen3, Clifford Gold4, Wilberforce Tushemereirwe1, Karl Kunert2

1National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) P. O. Box 7065 Kampala, Uganda.

2Department of Botany, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, 74 Lunnon Road, Hillcrest, Pretoria South Africa.

3Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, 74 Lunnon Road, Hillcrest, Pretoria South Africa.

4International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), East and Southern Africa Regional Centre (ESARC), P. O. Box 7878, Kampala, Uganda.

Accepted 21 November 2018

Abstract

Banana weevil is a serious pest of bananas and plantains in Africa. The development of resistant cultivars is seen as the long term and more sustainable control strategy. The difficulty in conventional breeding of bananas and plantains has prompted efforts towards the use of genetic transformation for banana and plantain improvement. In this review, the current status of banana weevil resistance, sources of resistance and resistance mechanisms is assessed. Further, current efforts and future prospects for identifying resistance genes outside the genus Musa with potential to control banana weevil in a transgenic approach are outlined and discussed.

Key words: Banana weevil, host plant resistance, pest resistance genes, transgenic plants.