PubMed · 13566069
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A D THOMSON. 1958-05-31. Interference between plant viruses.. https://doi.org/10.1038/1811547a0
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Plant viral vectors have evolved from tools for transient gene expression into a versatile platform for precise genetic intervention, offering a rapid, transgene-free alternative to conventional crop transformation. This review critically assesses their engineering for scalable field application, moving beyond foundational techniques like virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). We highlight how advanced vector design, including deconstructed genomes and synthetic regulatory circuits enhances cargo capacity, specificity, and biosafety. The integration of viral delivery with CRISPR-Cas systems has unlocked virus-induced genome editing (VIGE), base editing, and prime editing, enabling heritable trait modification without tissue culture. However, the transition from proof-of-concept in model plants to robust field technology hinges on overcoming critical bottlenecks: expanding host range through chimeric vectors, ensuring environmental containment, and developing scalable delivery methods such as nano-formulations or adjusted agroinfiltration protocols. We evaluate these delivery routes and emerging synergies with nanobiotechnology for targeted and efficient applications. While challenges in regulation, public perception, and large-scale production persist, the strategic engineering of viral vectors for stability, specificity, and safety positions them as a transformative, next-generation biotechnological input for achieving sustainable crop improvement and protection under changing climatic conditions.
The Benyviridae family encompasses multipartite soil-borne phytoviruses characterized by rod-shaped virions and positive single-stranded RNA genomes. The family is mostly known for its type species, the beet necrotic yellow vein virus, the causal agent of rhizomania on sugar beet. However, the recent description of candidate Benyviridae species and "beny-like" sequences suggests a far greater diversity than previously recognized. Also, their increasing relevance in agriculture has drawn attention to this family of viruses. In this review, we provide a comparative analysis of Benyviridae viruses, including newly identified emerging relatives. We highlight recent advances in understanding their diversity, pathogenicity, and interaction with plant hosts and their plasmodiophorid vectors, Polymyxa spp., that remain poorly characterized. Finally, we identify critical knowledge gaps and exciting opportunities-particularly in vector biology, host interactions, and the ecological dynamics of viral spread-that will shape the research ahead.
Viroids are single-stranded, circular RNAs of 250 to 400 bases, that replicate autonomously in their host plants but do not code for a protein. Viroids of the family Pospiviroidae, of which potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) is the type strain, are replicated by the host's DNA-dependent RNA polymerase II in the nucleus. To analyze the initiation site of transcription from the (+)-stranded circles into (-)-stranded replication intermediates, we used a nuclear extract from a non-infected cell culture of the host plant S. tuberosum. The (-)-strands, which were de novo-synthesized in the extract upon addition of circular (+)-PSTVd, were purified by affinity chromatography. This purification avoided contamination by host nucleic acids that had resulted in a misassignment of the start site in an earlier study. Primer-extension analysis of the de novo-synthesized (-)-strands revealed a single start site located in the hairpin loop of the left terminal region in circular PSTVd's secondary structure. This start site is supported further by analysis of the infectivity and replication behavior of site-directed mutants in planta.