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100 Years of Virology pp 203–220Cite as

Viroids and the nature of viroid diseases*

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Part of the book series: Archives of Virology. Supplementa ((ARCHIVES SUPPL,volume 15))

Summary

In its methodology, the unexpected discovery of the viroid in 1971 resembles that of the virus by Beijerinck some 70 years earlier. In either case, a novel type of plant pathogen was recognized by its ability to penetrate through a medium with pores small enough to exclude even the smallest previously known pathogen: bacteria as compared with the tobacco mosaic agent; viruses as compared with the potato spindle tuber agent. Interestingly, one of the two methods used by Beijerinck, diffusion of the tobacco mosaic agent into agar gels, is conceptually similar to one method used to establish the size of the potato spindle tuber agent, namely polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Further work demonstrated that neither agent is an unusually small conventional pathogen (a microbe in the case of the tobacco mosaic agent; a virus in the case of the potato spindle tuber agent), but that either agent represents the prototype of a fundamentally distinct class of pathogen, the viruses and the viroids, respectively.

With the viroids, this distinction became evident once their unique molecular structure, lack of mRNA activity, and autonomous replication had become elucidated. Functionally, viroids rely to a far greater extent than viruses on their host’s biosynthetic systems: Whereas translation of viral genetic information is essential for virus replication, viroids are totally dependent on their hosts’ transcriptional system and, in contrast to viruses, no viroid-coded proteins are involved.

Because of the viroids’ simplicity and extremely small size they approach more closely even than viruses Beijerinck’s concept of a contagium vivumfluidum.

Portions of this presentation are expanded and modified versions of a paper entitled “Portraits of Viruses: the Viroid” [Intervirology 22: 1–16 (1984)], published by S. Karger A. G., Basel, Switzerland

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Maryland, Plant Sciences Building, College Park, 20742, Maryland, USA

    Dr. T. O. Diener

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  1. Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    Charles H. Calisher

  2. Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Institute of Virology, State University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

    M. C. Horzinek

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Diener, T.O. (1999). Viroids and the nature of viroid diseases*. In: Calisher, C.H., Horzinek, M.C. (eds) 100 Years of Virology. Archives of Virology. Supplementa, vol 15. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6425-9_15

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