title: Viroids and viroid-host interactions.
abstract: Although they induce symptoms in plants similar to those accompanying virus infections, viroids have unique structural, functional, and evolutionary characteristics. They are composed of a small, nonprotein-coding, single-stranded, circular RNA, with autonomous replication. Viroid species are clustered into the families Pospiviroidae and Avsunviroidae, whose members replicate (and accumulate) in the nucleus and chloroplast, respectively. Viroids replicate in three steps through an RNA-based rolling-circle mechanism: synthesis of longer-than-unit strands catalyzed by host RNA polymerases; processing to unit-length, which in the family Avsunviroidae is mediated by hammerhead ribozymes; and circularization. Within the initially infected cells, viroid RNA must move to its replication organelle, with the resulting progeny then invading adjacent cells through plasmodesmata and reaching distal parts via the vasculature. To carry out these movements, viroids must interact with host factors. The mature viroid RNA could be the primary pathogenic effector or, alternatively, viroids could exert their pathogenic effects via RNA silencing.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (UPV-CSIC), Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia 46022, Spain. rflores@ibmcp.upv.es
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: A Emilio
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Martínez de Alba
authors.forename: José-Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Daròs
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Serio
mesh_terms: D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014772:Viroids / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014779:Virus Replication