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Correlation Between Viroid Structure and Pathogenicity

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Molecular Basis of Viral and Microbial Pathogenesis

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Abstract

Viroids are the smallest and structurally best-characterized disease agents presently known. Thus far, they have only been found in higher plants, where they cause several economically important diseases. Viroids are unencapsidated single-stranded covalently closed circular RNA molecules with a chain length of about 240 to 380 nucleotides, depending on the viroid “species”. The sequence of about a dozen different viroid species and numerous “isolates” or “variants” thereof is known. Detailed biochemical and biophysical studies have shown that all known viroids follow a common principle of structure and dynamics. They exist in their native state as unbranched double-stranded rod-like structures in which short base-paired regions are alternating with small internal and bulge loops (for review, see Diener 1983; Sanger 1984; Riesner and Gross 1935).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Viroidforschung, Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, D-8033, Martinsried, Germany

    B. Haas

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  1. H. L. Sänger
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  2. B. Haas
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  1. Institut für Virologie der Universität, Frankfurter Straße 107, 6300, Gießen, Germany

    Rudolf Rott

  2. Institut für Genetik und Mikrobiologie der Universität, Röntgenring 11, 8700, Würzburg, Germany

    Werner Goebel

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Sänger, H.L., Haas, B. (1987). Correlation Between Viroid Structure and Pathogenicity. In: Rott, R., Goebel, W. (eds) Molecular Basis of Viral and Microbial Pathogenesis. Colloquium der Gesellschaft für Biologische Chemie 9.–11. April 1987 in Mosbach/Baden, vol 38. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73214-0_1

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