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[treehugger53ah at yahoo.com]

hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
From: Henry <treehugger53ah at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Plant Viruses.
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.2.20081205093147.01cf17e8 at pop.indy.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Jim,

A professor here in Minnesota has been studying plant viruses.

I learned about his study in relation to hosta Virus X.

And there has been a recent dialogue about viruses in Arisaema so I thoug=ht it might be relevant.

--Henry



> From: J.E. Shields <jshields at INDY.NET>

> Hi Henry,
>
> No one has addressed your virus question yet, so I'll
> take a shot at it.
>
> In many plant families, viruses tend to be excluded from
> germ cells. Whether actively or passively, I'm not sure;
> but most probably passively. Still, you can often raise
> virus-free plants from seed produced by virus-infected
> parents.
>
> This by itself precludes the in vivo recombination you ask
> about. However, I am not familiar with the germ cell
> generating process in Cactaceae, so I can't say whether
> my comments above apply to cacti.
>
> Then there is the matter of the practical aspects of
> creating a recombinant virus. This happens relatively easily
> in viruses that have multiple strands of DNA or RNA in each
> particle. I don't think plant viruses have that
> characteristic (but I can't swear to how universal this
> is). Dual infections by defective viruses could result in
> rescuing one or both, but again if the viruses are defective
> they are not (very) infectious.
>
> Latent viruses -- where the virus genes have been
> incorporated into the host DNA -- are another matter.
> I'm not at all sure about the occurrence of latent
> viruses in the genomes of higher plants. It certainly
> happens in microorganisms. If it occurs in plants, the
> latent virus would naturally be included in the genes of
> germ cells and would be transmitted to the plants offspring.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Jim Shields
> in cold central Indiana (USA)
>
>
>
> At 12:25 PM 12/4/2008 -0800, you wrote:
> > Has anyone heard the theory that by crossing
> dissimilar plants we create plant viruses from the unmatched
> genetic material?
> >
> > --Henry Fieldseth
> > Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, zone 4/5
>
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