Although, insect herbivores are generally thought to select hosts that favor the fitness of their progeny, this "mother-knows-best" hypothesis may be challenged by the presence of a plant virus. Our previous study showed that the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, the obligate vector for transmitting Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), preferred to settle and oviposit on TYLCV-infected rather than he...

Potato viruses cause enormous economic loss in agriculture production. Potatoes can be infected by a number of different viruses that affect negatively the harvest and the tuber quality. Direct and effective drugs against plant virus diseases are still not available and control is only applied as agricultural measures and pesticides against virus vectors. Potato virus Y (PVY) is transmitted by ...

A majority of the plant-infecting viruses and many of the animal-infecting viruses are dependent upon arthropod vectors for transmission between hosts and/or as alternative hosts. The viruses have evolved specific associations with their vectors, and we are beginning to understand the underlying mechanisms that regulate the virus transmission process. A majority of plant viruses are carried on ...

A new tobamovirus species has been recently isolated from hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) in Florida (1). This Florida hibiscus virus has been given the name Hibiscus latent Fort Pierce virus (HLFPV) to reflect the site (Fort Pierce, FL) and host (hibiscus) from which it was originally isolated. A limited survey has revealed that this virus is widespread in hibiscus and related species in the...

Tomato mosaic virus was reported from jasmine in Florida. We present the first complete genome sequence of a tomato mosaic virus isolate from this woody perennial plant in the United States.

In vitro chemotherapy using ribavirin or acyclovir was applied to eliminate Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) from Vitis vinifera cv 'Zalema' plant material. Ribavirin at 20 mgl of concentration eliminated GFLV from the 94% of the grapevine in vitro shoots, enabling GFLV virus free plants to be obtained. The ribavirin treatment did not affect plant growth, rooting and number of roots, and did not ...

BACKGROUND In recent years, different HIV antigens have been successfully expressed in plants by either stable transformation or transient expression systems. Among HIV proteins, Nef is considered a promising target for the formulation of a multi-component vaccine due to its implication in the first steps of viral infection. Attempts to express Nef as a single protein product (not fused to a st...

Plant viruses, discovered over a century ago when the science of virology was born (for review, see Creager, 2002), are obligate parasites on their hosts. Through their life cycle, from virus accumulation to intracellular, local, and systemic movement, viruses utilize plant proteins, normally involved in host-specific activities, for their own purposes. Although the first identification of a ho...

The use of an engineered variant of a plant virus, Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), as a template for directed mineralization provides an environmentally benign route to monodisperse iron-platinum nanoparticles of approximately 30 nm diameter.