Applications of Plant Virus in Biotechnology

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Viruses of Plants, Fungi and Protozoa".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 7030

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
Interests: diagnosis of plant virus disease; plant virus-host interaction; applications of plant virus in biotechnology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant viruses depend on host-cell processes to complete their viral cycle and have traditionally been thought of as pathogens. Meanwhile, the  question of how to utilize the biological properties of plant viruses in fundamental or applied research in the biological field is an exciting topic. Indeed, plant viruses have been developed into powerful biotechnological tools for expressing high-value pharmaceutical proteins (such as vaccines and antibodies) and for gene silencing and gene editing, thereby promoting the development of biological science.

This Special Issue of “Applications of Plant Virus in Biotechnology” focuses on the utilization of the biological properties of plant viruses and their components in various research aspects relating to biotechnology. We welcome reseach articles and reviews on the applications of plant viruses, including but not limited to papers on the following topics: the use of derived vectors and viral components with heterologous protein expression, plant genetic engineering, virus-like particles (VLPs), virus nanoparticles (VNPs), drug/chemical delivery, plant disease control, and other plant virus-based studies of plant biochemical processes.

Dr. Fei Yan
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • plant viruses
  • gene silencing
  • gene editing
  • virus vectors
  • drug delivery
  • virus-like particles
  • virus nanoparticles
  • biotechnology

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.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

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

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Other

24 pages, 5357 KiB  
Article
Efficient Purification of Cowpea Chlorotic Mottle Virus by a Novel Peptide Aptamer
by Georg Tscheuschner, Marco Ponader, Christopher Raab, Prisca S. Weider, Reni Hartfiel, Jan Ole Kaufmann, Jule L. Völzke, Gaby Bosc-Bierne, Carsten Prinz, Timm Schwaar, Paul Andrle, Henriette Bäßler, Khoa Nguyen, Yanchen Zhu, Antonia S. J. S. Mey, Amr Mostafa, Ilko Bald and Michael G. Weller
Viruses 2023, 15(3), 697; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15030697 - 7 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3387
Abstract
The cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) is a plant virus explored as a nanotechnological platform. The robust self-assembly mechanism of its capsid protein allows for drug encapsulation and targeted delivery. Additionally, the capsid nanoparticle can be used as a programmable platform to display [...] Read more.
The cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) is a plant virus explored as a nanotechnological platform. The robust self-assembly mechanism of its capsid protein allows for drug encapsulation and targeted delivery. Additionally, the capsid nanoparticle can be used as a programmable platform to display different molecular moieties. In view of future applications, efficient production and purification of plant viruses are key steps. In established protocols, the need for ultracentrifugation is a significant limitation due to cost, difficult scalability, and safety issues. In addition, the purity of the final virus isolate often remains unclear. Here, an advanced protocol for the purification of the CCMV from infected plant tissue was developed, focusing on efficiency, economy, and final purity. The protocol involves precipitation with PEG 8000, followed by affinity extraction using a novel peptide aptamer. The efficiency of the protocol was validated using size exclusion chromatography, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, reversed-phase HPLC, and sandwich immunoassay. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the final eluate of the affinity column is of exceptional purity (98.4%) determined by HPLC and detection at 220 nm. The scale-up of our proposed method seems to be straightforward, which opens the way to the large-scale production of such nanomaterials. This highly improved protocol may facilitate the use and implementation of plant viruses as nanotechnological platforms for in vitro and in vivo applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Plant Virus in Biotechnology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Other

Jump to: Research

12 pages, 3444 KiB  
Brief Report
A Reduced Starch Level in Plants at Early Stages of Infection by Viruses Can Be Considered a Broad-Range Indicator of Virus Presence
by Wanying Zhao, Li Wang, Meizi Liu, Dong Zhang, Ida Bagus Andika, Ying Zhu and Liying Sun
Viruses 2022, 14(6), 1176; https://doi.org/10.3390/v14061176 - 28 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2412
Abstract
The diagnosis of virus infection can facilitate the effective control of plant viral diseases. To date, serological and molecular methods for the detection of virus infection have been widely used, but these methods have disadvantages if applied for broad-range and large-scale detection. Here, [...] Read more.
The diagnosis of virus infection can facilitate the effective control of plant viral diseases. To date, serological and molecular methods for the detection of virus infection have been widely used, but these methods have disadvantages if applied for broad-range and large-scale detection. Here, we investigated the effect of infection of several different plant RNA and DNA viruses such as cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), potato virus X (PVX), potato virus Y (PVY) and apple geminivirus on starch content in leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana. Analysis showed that virus infection at an early stage was generally associated with a reduction in starch accumulation. Notably, a reduction in starch accumulation was readily apparent even with a very low virus accumulation detected by RT-PCR. Furthermore, we also observed that the infection of three latent viruses in propagative apple materials was associated with a reduction in starch accumulation levels. Analysis of transcriptional expression showed that some genes encoding enzymes involved in starch biosynthesis were downregulated at the early stage of CMV, TMV, PVX and PVY infections, suggesting that virus infection interferes with starch biosynthesis in plants. Our findings suggest that assessing starch accumulation levels potentially serve as a broad-range indicator for the presence of virus infection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Plant Virus in Biotechnology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop