Plant Virus Ecology

Plant Virus Ecology

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, ...

Plant Virus Biodiversity and Ecology

T he International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses recognized a global total of about 2,000 species of viruses as of 2005 [1]. However, data on viruses that infect terrestrial organisms, including plants, are sparse, and recent sequencing of samples from marine environments for viruses suggests that 2,000 is a gross underestimate of the total number of viral species on earth [2]. In addit...

Host ecology determines the dispersal patterns of a plant virus

Since its isolation in 1966 in Kenya, rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) has been reported throughout Africa resulting in one of the economically most important tropical plant emerging diseases. A thorough understanding of RYMV evolution and dispersal is critical to manage viral spread in tropical areas that heavily rely on agriculture for subsistence. Phylogenetic analyses have suggested a relati...

Ecology of plant speciation

Ecology affects each of the three principal processes leading to speciation: genetic differentiation among populations within species, acquisition of reproductive isolation among populations, and the rise of ecological differentiation among such populations, allowing them to coexist. Until recently, however, the ties between ecology and speciation in plants have received relatively little atten...

Ebola virus ecology.