The unique carnation stunt-associated pararetroviroid

The discovery and description of a pararetroviroid associated with carnation stunt was one of the most outstanding achievements gained by the research team directed by Ricardo Flores, as it opened up a whole new world in plant virology and quickly led to the identification of further viroid diseases. The carnation stunt-associated viroid-like RNA has been proved to exist in both RNA and DNA form, a discovery that pointed to new ways of studying the co-evolution of plants and viroid-like RNAs. This paper aims to summarise the scientific work of Ricardo Flores, a source of inspiration to both present and future generations of scientists.