COVID-19 has created a state of crisis. Mankind was not organized to combat against the pandemic generates threat to our survival. Sudden lockdown and subsequent confinement plunged us into mental ‘Stress’ nothing but the mental, physical, emotional and behavioral reaction to any perceive demands or threats. So now question is how does nature help us to manage stress and anxiety? Flowers are the integral part of nature; without them nature alias plants will be merely green. Environmental Psychology has gone a long way to evince the positive impact and healing potential of nature. Flowers give older people a better quality of life. They make happy the giver and receiver duo by exchanging positive emotions (smile). Blooms evidently accelerate healing. More elaborately, visible greenery reduces stress, stimulates the mind and moves the focus away from pain and discomfort. Cuddle with plants make people able to tolerate more pain, and can reduce dependence on painkillers. Exposure to nature could also aid to eradicate poor eyesight allied problems viz. myopia, dry eyes etc. Collaterally, essential oils also could enact a vital role to lessen human anxiety by a holistic healing treatment namely ‘Aromatherapy’. It is based on usage of aromatic materials, including essential oils (eg. Rose, Lavender, Roman Chamomile etc.), and other aroma compounds, with claims for improving psychological or physical well-being by interacting with the limbic system (emotional brain). Our affinity toward nature is genetic and deep-rooted in evolution. Based on ‘Psycho Evolutionary Theory’ (PET) of Roger Ulrich (1983) nature has an in-built restoration component that helps in stress reduction and emotional regulation. Hence, conclusively flowers promote happiness, health and recovery.

 COVID-19 has created a state of crisis. Mankind was not organized to combat against the pandemic generates threat to our survival. Sudden lockdown and subsequent confinement plunged us into mental ‘Stress’ nothing but the mental, physical, emotional and behavioral reaction to any perceive demands or threats. So now question is how does nature help us to manage stress and anxiety? Flowers are the integral part of nature; without them nature alias plants will be merely green. Environmental Psychology has gone a long way to evince the positive impact and healing potential of nature. Flowers give older people a better quality of life. They make happy the giver and receiver duo by exchanging positive emotions (smile). Blooms evidently accelerate healing. More elaborately, visible greenery reduces stress, stimulates the mind and moves the focus away from pain and discomfort. Cuddle with plants make people able to tolerate more pain, and can reduce dependence on painkillers. Exposure to nature could also aid to eradicate poor eyesight allied problems viz. myopia, dry eyes etc. Collaterally, essential oils also could enact a vital role to lessen human anxiety by a holistic healing treatment namely ‘Aromatherapy’. It is based on usage of aromatic materials, including essential oils (eg. Rose, Lavender, Roman Chamomile etc.), and other aroma compounds, with claims for improving psychological or physical well-being by interacting with the limbic system (emotional brain). Our affinity toward nature is genetic and deep-rooted in evolution. Based on ‘Psycho Evolutionary Theory’ (PET) of Roger Ulrich (1983) nature has an in-built restoration component that helps in stress reduction and emotional regulation. Hence, conclusively flowers promote happiness, health and recovery.

Cassava is one of the most important staple foods to most of the African populations with over 800 million people depending on cassava as the main source of starch. However, low average yields of cassava are caused by a number of factors including susceptibility to pests and diseases. Among the viral diseases, cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), caused by Cassava brown streak virus and (CBSV) and Ugandan cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) family Potyviridae and genus Ipomovirus, is one of the most devastating. Disease spread has been controlled by planting clean and healthy cuttings. Breeding for resistant varieties has been undertaken, however, there is a need to screen the generated breeding lines for resistance to CSBD, and this has necessitated a need for infectious clones.
The main aim of this work was to construct a full-length infectious clone of UCBSV Kikombe. Infectious clones of RNA viruses provide a homogenous and reproducible source of viral infection for effective screening of breeding lines.
In order to construct the full-length infectious clone, initially, the complete genome of Kikombe isolate (UCBSV) was amplified in sections by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Sanger sequenced. The complete sequence (GenBank accession number KX753356) was found to consist of 9070 nucleotides (excluding the poly-A tail) which translated into a polyprotein of 2902 amino acids.
A full-length in-vitro UCBSV infectious clone (GenBank accession KX753357) was generated by cloning the complete genome of the virus in a backbone pYES2.1 vector. An SP6 promoter was introduced at the 5’ end of the UCBSV genome to allow for in-vitro transcription. The constructed infectious clone was confirmed to infect tobacco and cassava plants as shown by the mosaic like symptoms observed in the infectious clone infected plants. RNA was extracted from the symptomatic plants and used in RT-PCR. PCR and sequencing results confirmed the infection.
In conclusion, this work has for the first time reported construction of an intron-less, in-vitro infectious clone of the full length cDNA of the UCBSV.