What are viroids?
Q: What are viroids?
A: Viroids are the smallest infectious pathogens known that consist solely of short strands of circular, single-stranded RNA without protein coats.
Q: What type of diseases do viroids cause?
A: Viroids are mostly plant pathogens, causing plant diseases that can lead to crop loss.
Q: How big are viroid genomes?
A: Viroid genomes are extremely small in size, about 80 times smaller than the smallest virus.
Q: What is the human pathogen that is similar to viroids?
A: The human pathogen that is similar to viroids is the hepatitis D virus, which is a defective RNA virus.
Q: Who discovered and named viroids?
A: Viroids were discovered and named by Theodor Otto Diener, a plant pathologist at the U.S Department of Agriculture's Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, in 1971.
Q: What was the first viroid to be identified?
A: The first viroid to be identified was the Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd).
Q: How many species of viroids have been identified?
A: About 33 species of viroids have been identified.
