Mexico: A Landscape of Viroid Origin and Epidemiological Relevance of Endemic Species.

ABSTRACT: Viroids are single-stranded, circular RNA molecules (234-406 nt) that infect a wide range of crop species and cause economic losses in agriculture worldwide. They are characterized by the existence of a population of sequence variants, attributed to the low fidelity of RNA polymerases involved in their transcription, resulting in high mutation rates. Therefore, these biological entities exist as quasispecies. This feature allows them to replicate within a wide range of host plants, both monocots and dicots. Viroid hosts include economically important crops such as tomato, citrus, and fruit trees such as peach and avocado. Given the high risk of introducing viroids to viroid disease-free countries, these pathogens have been quarantined globally. As discussed herein, Mexico represents

SUBMITTER: Avina-Padilla K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9653797 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature