U.S. scientists say they've used modern imaging techniques to detail the
structure of plant viruses in a study that may lead to better crop
protection.
Vanderbilt University structural biologist Gerald Stubbs, the study's lead
author, said flexible filamentous viruses make up a large fraction of known
plant viruses and cause more than half the viral damage to the world's crop
plants but details of their structures were poorly understood.

Now, using a variety of sophisticated imaging techniques at the U.S.
Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborating
institutions, those structures have been detailed and that, said the
scientists, might benefit researchers interested in using viruses as agents
of biotechnology to coax plants to produce other useful products, such as
pharmaceuticals.

"These are very important viruses and we knew almost nothing about their
detailed structure before these studies," said Stubbs. "If you are to come
up with any molecular way of combating these plant diseases, you need to
know the details of their structures."

The study, which included researchers from the Illinois Institute of
Technology and the University of Kentucky, appears in the Journal of
Virology.
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