Plant virus ecology

Roossinck, M.J. (2013) Plant virus ecology. PLoS Pathogens, 9 (5). e1003304.

Abstract

Viruses have generally been studied either as disease-causing infectious agents that have a negative impact on the host (most eukaryote-infecting viruses), or as tools for molecular biology (especially bacteria-infecting viruses, or phage). Virus ecology looks at the more complex issues of virus-host-environment interactions. For plant viruses this includes studies of plant virus biodiversity, including viruses sampled directly from plants and from a variety of other environments; how plant viruses impact species invasion; interactions between plants, viruses and insects; the large number of persistent viruses in plants that may have epigenetic effects; and viruses that provide a clear benefit to their plant hosts (mutualists). Plants in a non-agricultural setting interact with many other living entities such as animals, insects, and other plants, as well as their physical environment. Wild plants are almost always colonized by a number of microbes, including fungi, bacteria and viruses. Viruses may impact any of these interactions [1].

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation:	School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
Copyright:	© 2013 Marilyn J. Roossinck
Notes:	This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/15746

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