Most if not all economically important crop plants may become infected with viruses. In most cases the virus will cause reduction in yield or quality of the infected crop. Understanding of the viral life cycle in host plants provides insights into how to create virus-resistant crop plants. Several plant virus expression vectors are exploited commercially for heterologous protein production in plants, and regulatory genetic elements derived from plant viral genomes are used in plant expression vectors.
Plant viruses offer tools to study plant cell biology and macromolecular transport in plants.
These, both practical and scientific benefits make plant viruses attractive research objects.