Articles
VIROID DISCOVERY – PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS, FUTURE CHALLENGES
Article number
1072_1
Pages
15 – 28
Language
English
Abstract
Viroid are the smallest known agents of infectious disease small, highly structured, circular RNA molecules that lack detectable messenger RNA activity yet are able to replicate autonomously and cause disease in susceptible plant species.
From the beginning (the 1971 discovery of Potato spindle tuber viroid) technology has played a key role in viroid discovery.
Rapid and sensitive biological assays remain important, but the introduction of, first, molecular cloning and, later, RT-PCR has greatly facilitated viroid identification and characterization.
Gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions has proven to be a particularly useful tool for viroid discovery because it is both sequence-independent and especially sensitive to the presence of circular RNAs.
More recently, bioinformatic tools designed to scan the data sets generated by large-scale RNA sequencing projects for sequences derived from small circular RNA genomes have begun to appear.
Using these techniques, it has become possible to systematically investigate the origin of different viroid diseases.
Thanks to data generated using these newer technologies, the natural host ranges of several viroids now appear to be considerably wider than initially believed.
From the beginning (the 1971 discovery of Potato spindle tuber viroid) technology has played a key role in viroid discovery.
Rapid and sensitive biological assays remain important, but the introduction of, first, molecular cloning and, later, RT-PCR has greatly facilitated viroid identification and characterization.
Gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions has proven to be a particularly useful tool for viroid discovery because it is both sequence-independent and especially sensitive to the presence of circular RNAs.
More recently, bioinformatic tools designed to scan the data sets generated by large-scale RNA sequencing projects for sequences derived from small circular RNA genomes have begun to appear.
Using these techniques, it has become possible to systematically investigate the origin of different viroid diseases.
Thanks to data generated using these newer technologies, the natural host ranges of several viroids now appear to be considerably wider than initially believed.
Authors
R.A. Owens
Keywords
viroids, diagnostic methods, epidemiology, ornamental hosts, subviral RNAs
Online Articles (21)