INVESTICATION-PLANT VIRUSES

When we hear of microbiology our initial thinking is about microorganisms and human beings but as we all know microorganisms affects us all . It affects human beings, plants, animals and etc. My curiosity made me to investigate about plant viruses

 Plant Viruses

 Plant viruses are viruses that infect plants. A virus particle, also known as a virion, is an extremely small infectious agent. It is essentially a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) enclosed in a protein coat called a capsid. Viral genetic material can be double-stranded DNA, double-stranded RNA, single-stranded DNA or single-stranded RNA. Most plant viruses are classified as single-stranded RNA or double-stranded RNA virus particles. Very few are single-stranded DNA and none are double-stranded DNA particles.

 

Plant viruses cause various types of plant diseases, but the diseases do not typically result in plant death. They do however, produce symptoms such as ring-spots, mosaic pattern development, leaf yellowing and distortion, as well as deformed growth. The name of the plant disease is often related to the symptoms the disease produces in the particular plant. For example, papaya leaf curl and potato leaf roll are diseases that cause specific types of leaf distortion. Some plant viruses are not limited to one particular plant host, but may infect different varieties of plants. For example, plants including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and tobacco may all be infected by the tobacco mosaic virus.

Plant Viruses: Transmission

Plant cells are eukaryotic cells that are similar to animal cells. Plant cells however, have a cell wall that is nearly impossible for viruses to breach in order to cause infection. As a result, plant viruses are typically spread by two common mechanisms: horizontal transmission and vertical transmission.

 

 Top Ten Plant Viruses

(1) Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV),
(2) Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV),
(3) Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV),
(4) Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV),
(5) Potato virus Y (PVY),
(6) Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV),
(7) African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV),

(8) Plum pox virus (PPV),
(9) Brome mosaic virus (BMV) and
(10) Potato virus X (PVX),

  The most scientifically important ones are: 1. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV),  4. Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV), 6. Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV), 9. Brome Mosaic Virus (BMV), 10. Potato Virus X (PVX).

 

 Reference

1. SCHOLTHOF, K. G., ADKINS, S., CZOSNEK, H., PALUKAITIS, P., JACQUOT, E., HOHN, T., & ... FOSTER, G. D. (2011). Top 10 plant viruses in molecular plant pathology. Molecular Plant Pathology, 12(9), 938-954. doi:10.1111/j.1364-3703.2011.00752.x

2. http://biology.about.com/od/virology/ss/plant-viruses.htm

3. https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+plant+viruses&tbm