IDENTIFICATION OF PLANT HOST FACTORS INTERACTING WITH VIRUSES: NOVEL TARGETS FOR VIRUS CONTROL

Abstract

Plant viruses and their vectors cause serious economic losses, limit crop production, and have negative effects on the quality and security of food supplies. The disease induced by a particular virus may be significantly exacerbated by the presence of a second unrelated virus or a subviral agent (viroids, satellite RNAs) or by infection with other cellular parasites (fungi, bacteria). Current approaches to the protection of plants from viruses are primarily based on poorly understood mechanisms and it is likely that more detailed knowledge will lead to improved virus management. Plant virus genomes are relatively small and therefore are physically unable to encode all the products needed for development of virus infection. When establishing infection, viruses recruit natural host factors to replicate and spread. These factors are candidate targets for novel virus resistance approaches. However, knowledge of such factors may also lead to misuse of plant viruses (by potential bioterrorists) for the development of methods inactivating these factors by recombinant (modified) viruses and hence destroying plant (crop) functions. To protect plants from consequences of such misuse we need to know more about host factors interacting with plant viruses. Here, I present information on one such factor.