Addressing Research Needs in the Field of Plant Virus Ecology by Defining Knowledge Gaps and Developing Wild Dicot Study Systems.

ABSTRACT: Viruses are ubiquitous within all habitats that support cellular life and represent the most important emerging infectious diseases of plants. Despite this, it is only recently that we have begun to describe the ecological roles of plant viruses in unmanaged systems and the influence of ecosystem properties on virus evolution. We now know that wild plants frequently harbor infections by diverse virus species, but much remains to be learned about how viruses influence host traits and how hosts influence virus evolution and vector interactions. To identify knowledge gaps and suggest avenues for alleviating research deficits, we performed a quantitative synthesis of a representative sample of virus ecology literature, developed criteria for expanding the suite of pathosystems serving as model

SUBMITTER: Shates TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6333650 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature