About this Research Topic
The flexible filamentous plant viruses are responsible for more than half of all agricultural loss worldwide. Potexvirus is one of the two most important flexible filamentous plant viruses. The type member of potexvirus, Potato virus X (PVX), is well-studied at the molecular, cellular, and epidemiological levels, and biotechnological applications for this virus have also been reported. Like PVX, Bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV), a member of the Potexvirus genus of Flexiviridae, has a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome of 6.4 kb in length, which contains five open reading frames (ORFs) encoding a replicase (ORF1) for viral RNA replication, three movement proteins (ORF 2 to 4, which form a triple gene block designated as TGBp1, TGBp2, and TGBp3) for viral movement, and a capsid protein (ORF 5) for viral encapsidation, movement, and symptom determination. Although extensive studies on BaMV did not start until the early 1990s, this virus was first reported in infected monocotyledon bamboo (Bambusa vulgariscis-acting elements of BaMV required for replication and movement; the functional characterization of viral and satellite encoded proteins, the host factors involved in viral infection, satBaMV-mediated interference of BaMV replication and biotechnological applications of BaMV vector. These chapters should help readers obtain a broad and comprehensive overview of a flexuous filamentous BaMV potexvirus other than PVX.
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