Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: ecology, agricultural practices, landscape connectivity, and the movement of plant material. Advances in sequencing and computational approaches further expand the fraction of viral diversity that we are able to observe. The Research Topic Plant Virus Evolution was conceived around this multidimensional view, linking genomic change with ecological, epidemiological, and phylogeographic processes relevant to virus emergence and management.The four contributions approach this problem from different perspectives but together tell a coherent story. Two reconstruct global virus histories, a Perspective This progression also exposes a challenge shared by all four contributions: our reconstruction of plant virus evolution is inseparable from the way viruses are sampled. Geographic gaps in public databases can alter inferred centers of diversity and dispersal routes; different genomic regions can produce different histories; pooled sampling can reveal community composition while limiting conclusions about individual infections; and targeted diagnostics can overlook viruses never included among the targets. Future studies will require more balanced and longitudinal sampling, integration of host and vector information, individual-level validation where appropriate, and evolutionary models that incorporate the ecological structure of agricultural systems.The collective message of this Research Topic is broader than the evolutionary history of any particular virus. Plant virus evolution is not only written in viral genomes. It is also written in the routes through which viruses move, in the agroecosystems in which they persist, and in the methods through which we observe them. Integrating these dimensions will be essential if evolutionary virology is to progress from reconstructing past events toward anticipating future emergence and designing more durable strategies for plant virus surveillance and management.
Source: Frontiers in Plant Science
Language: English
Topic: Plant Virus Research Studies
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7224192124