Molecular Approaches to Biological Control of Virus Diseases of Plants

Viruses are obligate pathogens that are entirely dependent upon the host cell for carrying out all metabolic aspects of their life cycle. Since chemical control options are not generally available, viral disease control has largely depended on biologically based control methods including cultural practices (quarantine, sanitation, rotation), cross protection, and genetic resistance. ¹ In the past several years, the potential for molecular genetics to contribute to biologically based control methods has been demonstrated for a broad array of plant viruses. This review will focus on the use of viral parasites and the development of pathogen-derived resistance as newly emerging methods to control virus diseases of plants. Other recent reviews related to this subject include those by: Beachy et al., ² Fitchen and Beachy, ³ Gadani et al., ⁴ Grumet, ^{5 , 6} Hull and Davies, ⁷ Nelson et al., ⁸ Scholthof et al., ⁹ Tepfer, ¹⁰ and Wilson. ¹¹ A list of names and abbreviations of the viruses mentioned in the text is provided in Table 1.