Novel Strategies For Engineering Resistance To Plant Viral Diseases

Abstract Viruses are the most significant class of plant pathogens leading to huge economic losses causing significant loss in yield and the quality of almost all the cultivated crop plants. Several cultural practices have been adopted to check crop losses due to the viral diseases. Since it is not possible to control plant viral diseases through application of chemicals, genetically resistant plant varieties are being used as one of the most viable option to control the plant viral diseases. In the recent past, RNA silencing has expanded the horizon of defensive mechanism against exogenous nucleic acids, including viruses. In addition, modifications in the plant DNA at targeted loci in the genome, that is, genome editing, have also become a prominent tool to confer resistance against plant viruses.