Scientists just doubled the known number of plant viruses
Liu Q, Gong Z, Koonin EV, Dolja VV, Han GZ
Plant Signaling
Every garden plant you grow is quietly hosting an invisible community of viruses, and this massive survey shows most of them aren't making your plants sick at all, they've settled in as long-term, low-key residents.
Researchers dug through the genetic blueprints of more than 2,400 plant species, from mosses to flowering trees, hunting for RNA viruses hiding inside them. They turned up about 35,000 viruses, more than double what scientists knew about before, and found that many of these viruses didn't evolve alongside their plant hosts but actually jumped in from insects and fungi that plants interact with constantly. It turns out plants are walking around with a far richer, weirder viral world inside them than anyone realized, and most of it seems to just quietly persist rather than cause disease.
Key Findings
Mined transcriptomes and genomes of 2,402 plant species across the plant kingdom and identified about 35,000 plant-associated RNA viruses
This represents a 2.2-fold increase in known plant-associated RNA virus diversity, including several previously undescribed virus families
Phylogenetic analysis shows plant viruses arose independently many times, largely through horizontal transfer from close ecological partners like invertebrates and fungi rather than strict co-evolution with plants
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists scanned the genetic data of over 2,400 plant species and found roughly 35,000 RNA viruses living in plants, more than doubling the known diversity of plant viruses and showing that many jumped into plants from insects and fungi over millions of years.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The origins and evolution of the RNA virome in land flora.
The colonization of land by plants was a major transition in the history of life, fundamentally reshaping the evolution of terrestrial organisms and Earth's ecosystems. Plants are hosts to an enorm...
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