This Research Topic is part of the Plant Viruses series:
Volume I: Plant Viruses: Detection Methods, Genetic Diversity and Evolution
Volume II: Molecular Plant Virus Epidemiology and its ManagementPlant viruses have been recognized as economically important plant pathogens worldwide, since they can cause serious losses to various food crops. In recent years, both the amount of information concerning plant viral genomes and proteins, as well as the understanding of their interactions with their hosts, have increased significantly. With pathogenic plant viruses constantly emerging, there is currently no effective or durable control measure available.
The main driving forces of plant virus evolution are mutation, recombination, and reassortment. Plant RNA viruses use all three mechanisms, while the majority of plant DNA viruses frequently use both mutation and recombination.
Understanding the virus evolution and the emergence of new strains and quasispecies is critical for the development of appropriate management strategies. In addition, a timely, reliable, and sensitive diagnostic methods for plant viruses are vital in the epidemiology and integrated management of plant virus diseases in the field, as well as for their long-term control.
We welcome researchers to submit manuscripts to this Research Topic that are focused on plant virus detection, genetic diversity, and evolution.
In particular, we aim to include papers describing the following:
- quasispecis of plant viruses that infect any agricultural crops,
- development of sensitive detection techniques for these viruses,
- recombination and reassortment mechanisms influencing viral genetic diversity,
- genetic evolutionary bottlenecks of plant viruses.