Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Direct Agroinoculation of Maize Seedlings by Injection with Recombinant Foxtail Mosaic Virus and Sugarcane Mosaic Virus Infectious Clones
Published on: February 27, 2021
Effects of crop viruses on wild plants
Carolyn M Malmstrom1, Helen M Alexander2
1Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Abstract:
Global land conversion and intensification of agriculture mean that remnant native plant populations are increasingly exposed to crop viruses. What are the consequences for wild plants? In natural unmanaged systems, the key consideration is how crop virus infection influences plant fitness. Field studies of virus effects on wild plant fitness are scant. Approaches include (i) observational studies, (ii) studies of experimental plants with natural infection, and (iii) studies of experimental plants with experimental infection, with most studies focused on viruses in the Luteoviridae and Potyviridae families. Fitness effects documented are largely neutral to negative. Crop virus influence on wild plants merits attention in ecological conservation and restoration.
Related Concept Videos
Defenses Against Pathogens and Herbivores
Subviral Agents
Plant Tissue Culture
Hypothesis: Accept or Fail to Reject?
There are two ways to indicate that the null hypothesis is not rejected. 'Accept' the null...
Plant Breeding and Biotechnology
Transgenic Plants
The first-ever transgenic plant was a tobacco plant developed in 1983 that showed resistance against the tobacco mosaic virus. Since then, many transgenic plants have been developed and commercialized for improving the agricultural, ornamental, and horticultural value of a crop plant. Transgenic...

