Overview
Potyviruses are a group of plant-infecting viruses in the family Potyviridae known to cause significant losses in many crops worldwide. They are transmitted by aphids and other vectors, and are typically characterized by long, flexuous filamentous particles, with a single stranded, positive-sense RNA genome. Potyviruses have a wide host range and cause a variety of diseases that affect the growth, development, and yield of crops, such as mosaic, leaf mottling and yellowing, stunting, and flower distortion. Hence, they are of great importance to farmers and are widely studied in molecular and biological methods to understand the molecular and biological basis of their infection of plants. Potyviruses may also be used in biotechnology research for genetic engineering, or the development of disease resistant plants.