The importance of wild plants in the ecology of nematode-transmitted plant viruses

Abstract

The first convincing evidence implicating a specific soil organism in the transmission of a plant virus was not obtained until 1958. The vector concerned was a free-living nematode. Since then a number of soil-borne viruses have been shown to be transmitted by nematodes. Host plants, particularly wild plants, play an important part in the ecology of these viruses and their vectors.