Plant Virus–Host Interactions 2027

Dear Colleagues,

Plant viruses are widespread in nature, causing major diseases and crop losses around the world. They are tiny intracellular parasites and depend on subversion of cellular resources to complete their infectious cycles. In the last decade, major progress has been made in uncovering several aspects of virus–plant host interactions, including identification of many new host factors co-opted by these viruses. A select few model plant viruses have pioneered mechanistic details of how viruses exploit host factors and cellular resources based on novel and powerful genome-, transcriptome- and proteome-wide approaches. However, major gaps in our understanding of plant virus–host interactions still exist and require continued effort. This rapidly expanding research area is important in dissecting interactions of established and emerging plant viruses of vegetable crops, rice and other cereals and fruit trees with their hosts that promises development of novel antiviral measures. Food for the growing human population and protection of our environment will greatly benefit from our increasing understanding of the intricate role and the effect of plant viruses on plants. Plant virus research will certainly influence animal and human virus research due to their common features shared by these viruses.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances in the rapidly progressing area of plant virus–host interactions. We invite contributions addressing what host factors are hijacked by plant viruses and viroids; what are the mechanistic functions of the co-opted host factors (dependency factors); and how plants mobilize host restriction factors to combat viruses and dampen the damage caused by virus infections.

Research in plant virus–host interactions includes but is not limited to the following:

1. Screening and identifying new host factors interacting with viral components;
2. Identifying the underlying molecular mechanisms of viral factors and host factors interactions;
3. Identifying and characterizing the role of lipids in virus infectious cycles;
4. Identifying and characterizing the role of intracellular organelles in virus infectious cycles;
5. Identifying and characterizing the role of biomolecular condensates in virus infectious cycles;
6. Identifying and characterizing the role of intracellular trafficking in virus infectious cycles;
7. Identifying and characterizing the role of the cytoskeleton in virus infectious cycles;
8. Using artificial intelligence approaches in plant virus and host protein predictions and designs;
9. Using advanced tools such as genome editing to target host factors to enhance host resistance;
10. Studying the ecological and evolutionary factors that influence virus infectious cycles.

Prof. Dr. Peter Nagy
Prof. Dr. Kai Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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