Biodiversity and ecology of viruses in Capsicum species

SÁEZ, CRISTINA; DUNGER, GERMÁN; PAGAN MUÑOZ ISRAEL

Pepper Virome. Molecular Biology, Diagnostics and Management

Elsevier

Año: 2024;

Peppers (Capsicum spp.) are major worldwide cultivated crops producing well appreciated fruits that are consumed as fresh vegetables or processed to be used as condiments. As with most of the agronomic important plant species, pepper cultivation is severely limited by a wide variety of viral diseases. As a consequence, characterizing the diversity of pepper-infecting viruses and their impact in pepper plants has attracted considerable attention of plant pathologists. Viral populations and their diversity in pepper plants differ depending on the cultivated regions around the world (Moury & Verdin, 2012), largely modulated by changes in the ecosystem and cultural and agronomical practices (Elena, Fraile, & García-Arenal, 2014). These factors have resulted in an increase in the global diversity of viral species infecting peppers, with the emergence of new viruses or best-adapted isolates disseminated to new geographies (Devendran et al., 2022; Kenyon, Kumar, Tsai, & Hughes, 2014a). Interestingly, the presence of viruses in pepper does not always result in apathogenic interaction, which points to a complex ecological role of pepper-infecting viruses. This chapter provides an overview of studies giving insight in pepper virus diversity and its ecological implications.