A Review of Viruses Infecting Yam ( spp.).

Yam is an important food staple for millions of people globally, particularly those in the developing countries of West Africa and the Pacific Islands. To sustain the growing population, yam production must be increased amidst the many biotic and abiotic stresses. Plant viruses are among the most detrimental of plant pathogens and have caused great losses of crop yield and quality, including those of yam.

A preliminary study to identify and distinguish southern tropical populations of from oil palm via mating assays, sequence data, and microsatellite markers.

Morphological studies suggest that the major pathogen causing basal stem rot of oil palm in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands is . This study presents the first evidence for conspecificity of from four countries where basal stem rot is prevalent. Seventy-three dikaryotic isolates of from Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands were studied via mating tests, analyses of nuc internal transcribed spacer ITS1-5.

Coconut Lethal Yellowing Diseases: A Phytoplasma Threat to Palms of Global Economic and Social Significance.

The recent discovery of Bogia coconut syndrome in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the first report of a lethal yellowing disease (LYD) in Oceania. Numerous outbreaks of LYDs of coconut have been recorded in the Caribbean and Africa since the late Nineteenth century and have caused the death of millions of palms across several continents during the Twentieth century. Despite the severity of economic losses, it was only in the 1970s that the causes of LYDs were identified as phytoplasmas, a group of insect-transmitted bacteria associated with diseases in many other economically important crop species.

Morphological variation and host range of two Ganoderma species from Papua New Guinea.

Two species of Ganoderma belonging to different subgenera which cause disease on oil palms in PNG are identified by basidiome morphology and the morphology of their basidiospores. The names G. boninense and G.