Geminiviruses occurrence in the middle east and their impact on agriculture in Iraq

What is it about?

The Middle East is an important agricultural region that produces a variety of important crops including fruits, vegetables, oil crops, and cereals. The family Geminiviridae has become one of the factors limiting crop production in the Middle East, including Iraq. It includes members that are causing devastating diseases that have resulted in serious losses in crop production both in quantity and quality. Geminiviruses were introduced into Iraqi agriculture decades ago, causing severe damage to both local and domesticated varieties. The activity of whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) and leafhopper (Jacobiasca lybica) may enable several geminiviruses to spread quickly nationwide.

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Why is it important?

This chapter discussed the incidence of geminiviruses infecting crops grown in Iraq, the geminiviruses reported so far, their spread nationwide, their transmission and host range, some applications applied to manage geminiviruses in Iraq, the phylogenetic relatedness to geminiviruses in the Middle Eastern neighbors, the epidemic status, and possible entry from the Middle Eastern countries to Iraq.

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