Vexing viruses

Added on 13 March 2024

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Photo courtesy of Michigan State University; Margery Daughtrey; Tom Creswell, Purdue

Despite lack of direct chemical control products, there are ways to thwart viruses.

Plant viruses are pathogenic particles that cause damage inside plant cells by interfering with the allocation of resources that the plant has produced through photosynthesis. Once viruses get into plants, viruses shed their protein coats and begin using their RNA or DNA to induce the plant cellular machinery to produce more and more virus particles. The viruses then move systemically throughout the plant.