The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and its partners the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Tanzania, and the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), Uganda, with a four-year USD 2.4 million grant to develop cassava varieties resistant to the dreaded Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD). First identified in Malawi, the virus-caused disease seriously threatens cassava production in Eastern and Central Africa. CBSD causes dry rot in the tuberous roots rendering them inedible.

Researchers at the IITA and ARI have already identified several cassava varieties with some level of resistance against the disease. The project "aims to identify the DNA markers associated with the resistance genes in these varieties and integrate marker-assisted selection into cassava breeding programs," the IITA said in a press release.

"Breeding for disease-resistant cassava i s the most cost-effective and sustainable way to control the devastating effects of the virus," said Morag Ferguson, IITA researcher and team project leader. But conventional breeding usually takes 8 to 12 years to produce improved varieties. Morag said that molecular breeding will significantly reduce this time by "allowing selection earlier on in the breeding cycle and by increasing the accuracy of selection."

Visit http://www.iita.org/cms/details/news_feature_details.aspx?articleid=3152&zoneid=342 for the original story.