Single infections by torradoviruses explain cassava frogskin disease in the Americas

Cassava frogskin disease (CFSD) has been known in the Americas for over 40 years but identification of- its causal agent is elusive. The clonal propagation of cassava, high incidence of mixed infections in diseases plants, unknown alternative hosts, and the location of CFSD symptoms in roots that take two or more crop cycles to develop, have constituted a challenge to solve this important plant disease of cassava. Consequently, most studies on CFSD have focused on listing a catalogue of different pathogens detected in affected plants. Here, using a sentinel approach we captured single infections in fields with high disease incidence of root symptoms.