Viroids and Satellites


Book Description

Viroids and Satellites describes plant diseases and their causal agents while also addressing the economic impact of these diseases. The book discusses various strategies for state-of-the-art methods for the detection and control of pathogens in their infected hosts and provides pivotal information from the discovery of viroids through the analysis of their molecular and biological properties, to viroid pathogenesis, host interactions, and RNA silencing pathways. Students, researchers and regulators will find this to be a comprehensive resource on the topics presented. - Provides coverage of the basic biological properties of disease, along with applied knowledge - Features economic impacts, transmission, geographical distribution, epidemiology, detection, and control within each chapter - Organizes viroid diseases by viroid taxonomy and viroid species




Viroids


Book Description

This comprehensive volume presents indispensable and up-to-date information on viroids and viroid diseases. It provides a single source of information on the properties of viroids, the economic impact of viroid diseases, and methods for their detection and control. It examines the diseases associated with different plant species, the geographic distribution and epidemiology of viroids, diseases of possible viroid etiology, and the future applications of viroids. Viroids examines the biology of viroids, molecular characteristics, localization and movement, replication, pathogenesis, viroids and gene silencing, classification, viroid-like satellite RNAs, detection of viroids using bioamplification hosts, biological indexing, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, molecular hybridisation and polymerase chain reaction. The book looks at the geographical distribution and epidemiology of viroids in North America, Australasia, China, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and at the global level. It covers the control of viroids including quarantine of imported germplasm, availability of viroid-tested propagation materials, thermotherapy, tissue culture, and other conventional strategies as well as biotechnological control approaches. Special topics such as ribozyme reaction of viroids and economic advantages of viroid infection are also included. Other chapters summarise the current state of knowledge concerning viroid diseases of the crop in question and aspects of the natural history of viroids in horticulture. Among the crops covered are potato, tomato, tobacco, cucumber, pome fruits, stone fruits, avocado, citrus, grapevines, hop, chrysanthemum, coleus, columnea, and coconut palm. The four eminent editors of this watershed volume have assembled an international group of more than 70 scientists who have substantial experience with viroids and viroid diseases. They have produced a cohesive and comprehensive work that can be used by students, researchers, extension agents, and regulators. It may also be of a great value to science managers, policy makers, and industries in formulating policies and products to obtain viroid-free plants and control viroid diseases. The information on plant quarantine and certification programs will help anyone concerned with the safe movement of plant material across international boundaries or within a single country.




Viroids


Book Description

This volume explores the latest methods used by researchers to study the detection, characterization, and various aspects of viroids. The chapters in this book are organized into seven parts and cover topics such as detection methods based on the biology of viroids; detection techniques based on electrophoresis and hybridization techniques; PCR-based techniques that provide high degrees of sensitivity; emerging area of nucleic acid sequence-based technology; and emerging techniques in viroid research such as RNA silencing, splicing, and viroid structure. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Viroids: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students who are working with viroid diseases.




Encyclopedia of Plant Viruses and Viroids


Book Description

The Encyclopedia of Plant Viruses and Viroids provides an up-to-date information on the viruses and viroids infecting all types of cultivated and weed plants at global level; and is unique among plant virology texts as it is organized alphabetically by the genus name of the host plant infected. It allows the reader to readily determine all of the different viruses currently reported naturally infecting the plant genus and species. Information is provided for each virus and viroids on common synonyms, current taxonomic status, geographical distribution, symptoms induced, other known hosts, means of transmission and properties of both the virus particles and the genome. Where ever the same virus is known to infect multiple hosts, host-specific information, biological properties and genome characters are presented under each host affected. The index can be utilized to identify other crops infected by the same virus, showing which other crops might be at risk of infection in the event of introduction of a virus that has not previously reported in an area, or which might serve as potential virus reservoirs for infection of more sensitive or economically important crops than the host in which it is initially identified. The taxonomy and nomenclature of the viruses and viroids are followed based on the current guidelines of the 10th ICTV Report, covering up to 2018 and also about many new viruses and viroids that have been reported but not yet recognized as species by ICTV, have been included in this Encyclopedia. The uniqueness of this Encyclopedia is that all the known viruses and viroids affecting more than 1010 plant species at global level are described and the plant species are arranged in alphabetical order of the scientific name of the plant along the relevant information on 1518 viruses and viroids and is the ready-reckoner of the global plant species and their viruses and viroids for students, scientists, teachers of Plant Pathology& Virology; and also for the crop protection professionals, agricultural policymakers, seed companies and quarantine agencies.




Comprehensive Virology 11


Book Description

The time seems ripe for a critical compendium of that segment of the biological universe we call viruses. Virology, as a science, having passed only recently through its descriptive phase of naming and num bering, has probably reached that stage at which relatively few new truly new-viruses will be discovered. Triggered by the intellectual probes and techniques of molecular biology, genetics, biochemical cytology, and high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the field has experienced a genuine information explosion. Few serious attempts have been made to chronicle these events. This comprehensive series, which will comprise some 6000 pages in a total of about 22 volumes, represents a commitment by a large group of active investigators to analyze, digest, and expostulate on the great mass of data relating to viruses, much of which is now amorphous and disjointed, and scattered throughout a wide literature. In this way, we hope to place the entire field in perspective, and to develop an invalu able reference and sourcebook for researchers and students at all levels. This series is designed as a continuum that can be entered anywhere, but which also provides a logical progression of developing facts and integrated concepts.




Plant Virus Evolution


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive look at the field of plant virus evolution. It is the first book ever published on the topic. Individual chapters, written by experts in the field, cover plant virus ecology, emerging viruses, plant viruses that integrate into the host genome, population biology, evolutionary mechanisms and appropriate methods for analysis. It covers RNA viruses, DNA viruses, pararetroviruses and viroids, and presents a number of thought-provoking ideas.




Grapevine Viruses: Molecular Biology, Diagnostics and Management


Book Description

The domestication of grapes dates back five thousand years ago and has spread to nearly all continents. In recent years, grape acreage has increased dramatically in new regions, including the United States of America, Chile, Asia (China and India), and Turkey. A major limiting factor to the sustained production of premium grapes and wines is infections by viruses. The advent of powerful molecular and metagenomics technologies, such as molecular cloning and next generation sequencing, allowed the discovery of new viruses from grapes. To date, grapevine is susceptible to 64 viruses that belong to highly diverse taxonomic groups. The most damaging diseases include: (1) infectious degeneration; (2) leafroll disease complex; and (3) rugose wood complex. Recently, two new disease syndromes have been recognized: Syrah decline and red blotch. Losses due to fanleaf degeneration are estimated at $1 billion annually in France alone. Other diseases including leafroll, rugose wood, Syrah de cline and red blotch can result in total crop loss several years post-infection. This situation is further exacerbated by mixed infections with multiple viruses and other biotic as well as adverse abiotic environmental conditions, such as drought and winter damage, causing even greater destruction. The book builds upon the last handbook (written over twenty years ago) on the part of diagnostics and extensively expands its scope by inclusion of molecular biology aspects of select viruses that are widespread and economically most important. This includes most current information on the biology, transmission, genome replication, transcription, subcellular localization, as well as virus-host interactions. It also touches on several novel areas of scientific inquiry. It also contains suggested directions for future research in the field of grapevine virology.




Plant Virus and Viroid Diseases in the Tropics


Book Description

Around the globe, besides fungal and bacterial diseases, both virus and viroid diseases have acquired greater importance in the realm of plant pathology and call for effective management measures as they are responsible for heavy yield losses and are a matter of vital importance and concern to farmers, horticulturists, gardeners and foresters. Understanding disease epidemiology is of vital importance for formulating viable disease management practices in a given agro-ecosystem. The development and progress of plant disease epidemics are variable from region to region. Epidemiology is not a static process, but rather a dynamic course that varies with a change in the ecology, host, vector and virus systems.




Viroid Life


Book Description

Nietzsche's vision of the 'overman' continues to haunt the postmodern imagination. His call that 'man is something that must be overcome' can no longer be seen as simple rhetoric. Our experiences of the hybrid realities of artificial life have made the 'transhuman' a figure that looks over us all. Inspired by this vision, Keith Ansell Pearson sets out to examine if evolution is 'out of control' and machines are taking over. In a series of six fascinating perspectives, he links Nietzsche's thought with the issues at stake in contemporary conceptions of evolution from the biological to the technological. Viroid Life; Perspectives on Nietzsche and the Transhuman Condition considers the hybrid, 'inhuman' character of our future with the aid of Nietzsche's philosophy. Keith Ansell Pearson contrasts Nietzsche and Darwin before introducing the more recent figures such as Giles Deleuze and Guy Debord to sketch a new thinking of technics and machines and stress the ambiguous character of our 'machine enslavement'.




Plant Virus and Viroid Diseases in the Tropics


Book Description

Plant virus and sub-viral pathogens pose severe constraints to the production of wide range of economically important crops worldwide. The crops raised both through true seed and vegetative propagated materials are affected with number of virus and virus-like diseases. The virus may enter into plants through seed planting materials or by vectors. Once the virus is in the field, it multiplies and spreads following definite patterns depending upon the nature of the vector and agro-meteorological conditions. Disease free crops and plants are great economic and social importance in feeding the world's population. Detection of virus and sub-viral agents at initial stages of infection is critical to reduce economic losses. For nearly two decades, ELISA and its variants played a major role in large scale virus testing and also in the production of virus-free planting materials.