Biological and Molecular Characterization of Chenopodium quinoa Mitovirus 1 Reveals a Distinct Small RNA Response Compared to Those of Cytoplasmic RNA Viruses

Abstract

This paper reports the first biological characterization of a bona fide plant mitovirus in an important crop, Chenopodium quinoa , providing data supporting that mitoviruses have the typical features of cryptic (persistent) plant viruses. We, for the first time, demonstrate that plant mitoviruses are associated with mitochondria in plants. In contrast to fungal mitoviruses, plant mitoviruses are not substantially affected by the antiviral silencing pathway, and the most abundant mitovirus small RNA length is 16 nt.