NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Viruses contain either RNA or DNA as the genetic material and never both. In general, viruses that infect plants have single stranded RNA (ssRNA) while those that infect animals may have either single or double stranded RNA (ssRNA or dsRNA) or double stranded DNA (dsDNA).

Detailed explanation-2: -However, the majority of plant viruses do not use DNA at all. Instead, the genomes of nearly all plant viruses are made of RNA. Most of these genomes are composed of ssRNA that is the same (positive-sense) polarity as the messenger RNAs of the cell.

Detailed explanation-3: -Like all living organisms, plants use deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as their genetic material. The DNA in plant cells is found in the nucleus, the mitochondria and the chloroplasts.

Detailed explanation-4: -The vast majority of positive-strand RNA viruses (more than 500 species) are adapted to infection of plant hosts. Genome sequence comparisons of these plant RNA viruses have revealed that most of them are genetically related to animal cell-infecting counterparts; this led to the concept of “superfamilies".

Detailed explanation-5: -The RNA viruses, potexvirus (Potexvirus, family Alphaflexiviridae), potyvirus (Potyvirus, family Potyviridae), and tobamovirus (Tobamovirus, family Virgaviridae) are among the most economically damaging pathogenic plant viruses, as they are highly infectious and distributed worldwide.