PLAVIT, THE ITALIAN PLANT VIRUS COLLECTION IN 2024

Viruses still generate major concern in public opinion, because mainly considered as human pathogens. However, they are more and more recognized as essential within ecosystems to maintain an ecological balance among different microorganisms and living beings in general. Therefore, viruses are key to environmental and human health, to science as well as to bioeconomy and biotechnology applications. Hence the need to develop and improve collections and biobanks not only of human viruses, but also of plant, microbial, and environmental viruses. Plant virology started in Italy in the late 60’s when specific expertise and equipment became available and new diseases of unknown etiology were studied. At that time virus identification was limited to bioassays on test plants, electron microscopy and basic serological tests. Dried leaf samples were collected and stored, mainly in laboratories of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) located in Torino and Bari. The Plant Virus Italy (PLAVIT) collection, which includes more than 1,000 isolates, began to be redeveloped and quality-checked starting from 2020 thanks to dedicated European and national funds. The process, consisting of several steps (revitalization, authentication, sequencing, preservation, storage, distribution) is implemented in the frame of a Quality Management System and of international guidelines specifically developed for viruses that define mandatory information necessary for an isolate to be included into the PLAVIT catalogue. Up to now approximately half of the virus and viroid isolates present in the collection underwent the quality check and can be distributed upon request to academic and private research centers. In the framework of a continuous improvement scenario, more isolates will be processed, new ones will be acquired, and the categories in the catalogue will be expanded to include mycoviruses, bacteriophages and phytoplasmas, as well as nucleic acids and detection tools.