Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.6
4.1
Journals
Plants
Special Issues
Plant Viruses, Viroids and Phytoplasmas: Insight into Evolutionary, Pathogenicity, and...
share announcement

Plant Viruses, Viroids and Phytoplasmas: Insight into Evolutionary, Pathogenicity, and Epidemiology Studies—2nd Edition

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Protection and Biotic Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 3495

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Luca Ferretti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA-DC), Via C.G. Bertero 22, 00156 Rome, Italy
Interests: plant virology; diagnosis; phytoplasmas; validation of detection methods; reference laboratory; reference material; phytosanitary measures; quarantine organisms
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Anna Taglienti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, 00156 Rome, Italy
Interests: plant virology; diagnosis; virus elimination; biopesticides; high-throughput sequencing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant viruses, viroids, and phytoplasmas are unculturable pathogens recognized as responsible for increasing threats to sustainable food production and environmental protection globally. The characterization of their genome is of great interest for several applications in the plant health field. First and foremost, developing molecular diagnostic tests is critical for setting proper control measures and minimizing the impact on crops. Moreover, molecular characterization is crucial for taxonomic classification, especially in the case of phytoplasmas. Finally, it allows us to perform phylogenetic analyses that explore genetic diversity and the structure of plant virus populations for evolutionary, pathogenicity, and epidemiology studies.

This Special Issue of Plants will highlight the identification and molecular characterization of plant viruses, viroids, and phytoplasmas, with particular attention given to their genome organization, molecular variability, and taxonomic features. Therefore, this Special Issue welcomes the submission of articles (including original research papers, abstracts, and reviews) that focus on the evolutionary, pathogenicity, and epidemiology investigations of the pathogens mentioned above.

Dr. Luca Ferretti
Dr. Anna Taglienti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • molecular characterization
  • diagnosis
  • phylogenetic analysis
  • epidemiology
  • genetic diversity
  • taxonomy

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

26 pages, 5488 KB  
Article
Molecular Characterization of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus in Portugal and Its Global Phylogenetic Context
by Joana Amaro Ribeiro, André Albuquerque, Cinthia Nunes, Maria Doroteia Campos, Margarida Basaloco, Mariana Patanita, Filipa Santos, Carla Varanda, Patrick Materatski and Maria do Rosário Félix
Plants 2026, 15(8), 1240; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15081240 - 17 Apr 2026
Viewed by 474
Abstract
Plant viruses pose serious threats to global crop production, and members of the genus Tobamovirus are particularly problematic due to their environmental stability, efficient mechanical transmission and rapid global spread. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) has emerged as one of the most [...] Read more.
Plant viruses pose serious threats to global crop production, and members of the genus Tobamovirus are particularly problematic due to their environmental stability, efficient mechanical transmission and rapid global spread. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) has emerged as one of the most damaging tobamovirus affecting tomato, a crop of major economic importance worldwide. ToBRFV has been reported in more than 45 countries, including Portugal. However, to date, no peer-reviewed molecular characterization of local isolates has been published, and official records classify its presence in Portugal as transient. This study confirms the occurrence of ToBRFV and provides the first comprehensive genomic and phylogenetic characterization of local virus isolates in Portugal. RNA-seq generated 192,852,438 reads, of which 103,882,115 (58.9%) mapped to ToBRFV, allowing reconstruction of a complete 6393 nt viral genome. A second full-length consensus sequence was independently obtained from the same composite sample using an overlapping Sanger sequencing strategy, differing by only two SNPs. Comparative genomic, functional, structural, and phylogenetic analysis revealed low diversity, with most variation located in replicase-coding regions, while movement and coat protein genes remained highly conserved. Nucleotide-based phylogenies resolved geographically structured clades, although the Portuguese sequences formed a strongly supported subclade with a Chinese isolate. These findings support recent global dissemination of ToBRFV and reinforce the importance of integrated surveillance and genomic monitoring for effective virus management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Viruses, Viroids and Phytoplasmas: Insight into Evolutionary, Pathogenicity, and Epidemiology Studies—2nd Edition)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 2347 KB  
Article
Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus Decreases Chlorophyll a Content in Cucurbit Crops by Upregulating the Key Gene in Chlorophyll Catabolic Pathway, Chlorophyllase 1
by Zhenggang Li, Yafei Tang, Guobing Lan, Lin Yu, Shanwen Ding, Zifu He and Xiaoman She
Plants 2025, 14(19), 3086; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14193086 - 6 Oct 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1153
Abstract
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV, Tobamovirus viridimaculae) is a tobamovirus that induces leaf green mottling, mosaic patterns, bleaching, fruit sponginess, rotting, and malformation symptoms in various cucurbit crops. The underlying mechanisms by which CGMMV elicits these symptoms have yet to be [...] Read more.
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV, Tobamovirus viridimaculae) is a tobamovirus that induces leaf green mottling, mosaic patterns, bleaching, fruit sponginess, rotting, and malformation symptoms in various cucurbit crops. The underlying mechanisms by which CGMMV elicits these symptoms have yet to be elucidated. In the present study, we observed that the infection of CGMMV in bottle gourd, but not in N. benthamiana, led to the significant upregulation of a key gene involved in chlorophyll degradation, Chlorophyllase 1 (CLH1). This induction may be closely linked to chlorophyll degradation, particularly that of chlorophyll a (Clh a) in bottle gourd plants. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the amino acid sequence of BgCLH1 has a closer relationship with those of CLH1 from other cucurbit crops and has a relatively farther relationship with those of the well-studied CLH1 from Arabidopsis thaliana and Citrus sinensis. Further, confocal microscopy analysis indicated that BgCLH1 may be localized to the cytoplasm instead of the chloroplast. Moreover, silencing of the BgCLH1 gene not only reduced viral accumulation but also resulted in an increase in chlorophyll content. Similar results were also observed in watermelon, suggesting that this regulatory mechanism may be conserved across cucurbit crops. Our findings thus reveal a complex and intricate interplay between viral infection and the chlorophyll metabolic pathway. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Viruses, Viroids and Phytoplasmas: Insight into Evolutionary, Pathogenicity, and Epidemiology Studies—2nd Edition)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 4493 KB  
Article
A Witches’-Broom Disease of Cultivated Strawberry Associated with ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma Rubi’-Related Strains in Southern Italy
by Carmine Marcone, Carmine Palmieri and Alberto Sellitto
Plants 2025, 14(18), 2914; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14182914 - 19 Sep 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1392
Abstract
In the Campania region of southern Italy, a formerly undescribed witches’-broom disease of cultivated strawberry characterized by symptoms similar to those of strawberry witches’-broom and multiplier diseases occurring in North America, has been observed. Strawberry witches’-broom and multiplier diseases are not known to [...] Read more.
In the Campania region of southern Italy, a formerly undescribed witches’-broom disease of cultivated strawberry characterized by symptoms similar to those of strawberry witches’-broom and multiplier diseases occurring in North America, has been observed. Strawberry witches’-broom and multiplier diseases are not known to occur in Europe. To elucidate the etiology of the new strawberry disease occurring in southern Italy and to determine the taxonomic position of the presumable causal agent, field observations and PCR assays using universal and group-specific phytoplasma primers followed by multigene sequence analysis were carried out. All of the symptomatic strawberry plants examined tested phytoplasma positive with universal primers and primers specific to the elm yellows (EY) phytoplasma group or 16SrV group. The percentage of diseased plants in the fields was about 30%. Data obtained from sequence and phylogenetic and virtual RFLP analyses of PCR-amplified rDNA (16S rDNA and 16S/23S rDNA spacer region), rpsV (rpl22) and rpsC (rps3), map, imp and groEL gene sequences, showed that the diseased strawberry plants harbored phytoplasma strains which were identical or nearly identical to each other and to strains of the rubus stunt (RuS) agent ‘Ca. Phytoplasma rubi’, a member of the 16SrV group, subgroup 16SrV-E. The 16S rDNA sequence similarity among the strawberry-infecting phytoplasma strains ranged from 99.1 to 99.9%. These strains shared the same range of 16S rDNA sequence similarity with RuS phytoplasma strains including the reference strain RUS of ‘Ca. Phytoplasma rubi’. This is the first report on the occurrence of RuS phytoplasma in naturally affected strawberry plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Viruses, Viroids and Phytoplasmas: Insight into Evolutionary, Pathogenicity, and Epidemiology Studies—2nd Edition)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop