Plant viruses are intracellular pathogens that cause great damage in agriculture. Viral diseases present a threat to world’s food supply as they significantly reduce crop quality and yield. Traditional methods of virus control are not effective, therefore new biotechnological approaches are gaining importance. First strategy is protection based on RNA interference (RNAi). RNA interference is sequence-specific mechanism for gene silencing, mediated by small interfering RNAs or microRNAs. This technology has already been used to protect many economically important plants against viruses such as potato Y virus (PVY), cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), plum pox virus (PPV) and papaya ringspot virus (PRV). The second approach uses different protein and enzyme systems that specifically target viruses and their components, thus providing protection against viruses. These systems include genome editing technologies such as ZFN, TALEN and CRISPR-Cas. Studies have shown that these plant modification methods are effective in protecting plants against several plant viruses, especially viruses from the families Geminiviridae and Potyviridae.
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