Current Status of Major Viruses, Viroids, and Phytoplasma Infecting Petunia: Diagnosis, Characterization, and Commercial Impact

Petunia (Petunia hybrida) is a widely cultivated and popular ornamental plant used in flower beds, hanging baskets, and window boxes and in gardens for its beautiful blooms of various colors throughout the world. Besides its floriculture importance, it is a model plant for genetic transformation research and is also reported as an important source of an anti-microbial agent. Its cultivation has been affected due to several viral, viroid, and phytoplasma pathogens of genera Alfamovirus, Ilarvirus, Cucumovirus, Nepovirus, Fabavirus, Alphacarmovirus, Begomovirus, Pospiviroid, Macluravirus, Orthotospovirus, Tombusvirus, Tymovirus, Petuvirus, and Tobamovirus (Sastry et al., Encylopedia of plant viruses and viroid. Springer, Berlin: 1731–1793, 2019; Gautam et al., Phytoparasitica 40:425–431, 2012) which cause considerable economic losses to the petunia industry. In this chapter, we described the current status of major viruses, viroids, and phytoplasma infecting petunia and their diagnosis, characterization, and commercial impact.