A B S T R A C T Virus infection can result in the alteration of physiological, biochemical and metabolic processes within plants leading to symptom development. Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) is one of the most destructive viral diseases in Tropical Asia, Pacific Indian Oceania (PIO) regions and Africa leading to 100% yield loss in banana and plantains. Though molecular characterization and their diversity were studied in depth in recent years, information on physiological and biochemical

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... s during banana-BBTV interaction is still not convincingly explained. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted to find out the quantifiable changes in physiological and biochemical parameters such as proteins, pigment and carbohydrate content, phenolic compounds, polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POX), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in leaves of banana cultivars Grand Nain (AAA) and Virupakshi (AAB). The amount of carbohydrate contents, phenolic compounds, PPO, POX, APX, GPX, CAT were significantly higher in BBTV infected leaves of both the cultivars over the healthy, whereas total protein content, pigments and SOD activity showed an opposite trend. Overall the results suggest that BBTV infection induces significant changes in enzyme levels leading to irreversible symptom development. Further studies would lead to identification of biochemical markers for studying plant-virus compatible and incompatible interactions.