As of 2024 :
• Family Pospiviroidae: relies on host Rnase III
• Family Avsunviroidae: autocatalytic clevage … See more

Viroids are only known to infect plants, and infectious viroids can be transmitted to new plant hosts by aphids, by cross contamination following mechanical damage to plants as a result of horticultural or agricultu… See more

There has long been uncertainty over how viroids induce symptoms in plants without encoding any protein products within their sequences. Evidence suggests that RNA silencing is involved in the process. First, changes to … See more

"Viroid-like elements" refer to pieces of covalently closed circular (ccc) RNA molecules that do not share the viroid's lifecycle. The category encompasses satellite RNAs (including small plant satRNAs "… See more

Diener's 1989 hypothesis had proposed that the unique properties of viroids make them more plausible macromolecules than introns, or other RNAs considered in the past as possible "living relics" of a hypothetica… See more

The development of tests based on ELISA, PCR, and nucleic acid hybridization has allowed for rapid and inexpensive detection of known viroids in biosecurity inspections, phytosanitary inspections, and quarantine. See more

In the 1920s, symptoms of a previously unknown potato disease were noticed in New York and New Jersey fields. Because tubers on affected plants become elongated and misshapen, they named it the potato spindle tub… See more