Background The virus community in plants in a local plant ecosystem has remained largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the virus community in these wild and cultivated plants in Zhenjiang ancient canal ecosystem. Results using viral metagenomic approach, we investigated the viral community in leaf tissues of 161 plant species belonging in 38 different orders in a local riverside plant ecosystem. We discovered 251 different plant-associated virus genomes which included 88 DNA and 163 RNA viruses belonging to 27 different virus families, orders or unclassified virus groups. The identified viruses include some that are sufficiently divergent to comprise new genera, families, or even orders. Our data indicated that some groups of viruses known to infect non-plant organisms had host switching to infecting plants. Cross-species infection and co-infection of viruses were common in this plant ecosystem. Conclusions these data present a view of the viral community in plants present in a local plant ecosystem which is more diverse than that depicted in current classification of plant viruses and provide a solid foundation for studies in virus ecology and evolution in plants.
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Yang et al. (2020) studied this question.