Tropical Fruit Virus Resistance in the Era of Next-Generation Plant Breeding

Abstract

Plant viral diseases constitute a major contributor to agricultural production losses, significantly impacting the economies of exporting countries by more than USD 30 billion annually. Understanding and researching the biology and genomics of viruses is crucial for developing virus-resistant genetically edited or genetically modified plants. Genetic modifications can be targeted to specific regions within genes of target plants which are important or essential for the virus to establish a systemic infection, thus fostering resistance or enabling plants to effectively respond to invading agents while preserving their yield. This review provides an overview of viral incidence and diversity in tropical fruit crops and aims to examine the current state of the knowledge on recent research efforts aimed at reducing or eliminating the damage caused by viral diseases, with emphasis on genetically edited products that have reached the market in recent years.