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Plant Virology
The value of plant virus research has surfaced on numerous instances in the past century, and on many occasions it has permitted major advances in our understanding of basic biological processes. Recent discoveries in molecular plant virology have opened avenues for a detailed understanding of virus-host interactions at the cellular and molecular level, and have been instrumental in developing new tools for molecular biology and biotechnology. Plant viruses provide powerful genetic systems that facilitate studies towards isolation and characterization of resistance genes, virus encoded determinants for induction of disease symptoms, and the nucleic acid and proteins that are required for virus translation, replication, and movement in plants. Recently, plant viruses have been manipulated to serve as vectors for the expression of foreign genes, which may prove useful for production of pharmaceutical peptides and proteins in planta as well as veterinary and medical vaccines. In addition, incorporation of transgenic technology into plant virology research has resulted in the production of virus resistant monocot and dicot plants, the production of bioactive peptides, and a means to understand and study post-transcriptional gene silencing. The recent incorporation of fluorescent reporter genes into plant or virus genomes enables real time visualization of the infection pathway through plants macroscopically, microscopically and even at the molecular level. This provides the unique opportunity to use these new tools in the classroom for demonstration and laboratory exercises to illustrate old and new concepts in plant biology and virology.
If you would like more information on Plant Virology at Texas A&M University, please contact Herman Scholthof or Karen-Beth Scholthof.
Please visit the Lab Web Pages for more information.
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