With the expanding global population and escalating effects of climate change, our ability to combat plant pathogens is becoming increasingly important in the fight for food security. Most of the reported emerging diseases of plants are caused by viruses and great efforts have been devoted to studying viral pathogens of economically important (crop) plants. However, other aspects of plant virus biodiversity, such as non-pathogenic interactions and possible movements of plant-associated viromes in an ecosystemic context remain understudied. The main objective of this project is to elucidate the possible fluxes of plant viruses between different fractions of anthropogenic and natural environments in a fragmented landscape.

To achieve it, we have set the following specific objectives:

• To compare viromes of crops, wild plants (terrestrial and aquatic) and water samples and study observed overlaps and potential associations to improve our understanding of plant virus transmission amongst different plant species and different fractions of the ecosystem.

• To develop an experimental workflow for studying underexplored viromes of aquatic plants and possible influences that plant viruses found in water have on these plants.

• To study plant viruses discharged from urban wastewater and their presence in the environment (downstream river water).

• To study plant viromes of different plant communities (wild terrestrial and aquatic plants, crops) in different environments (natural, agricultural, agro-ecological interface) within the ecosystem.

The project is funded by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS)

ARRS project ID: J4-4553

Duration: 1.10.2022 – 30.9.2025