Plant viruses are ubiquitous in nature infecting both crop plants and weeds.
Most plant viruses are vectored by insects, and crop losses associated with disease epidemics only occur when a virus is able to move efficiently from plant to plant. A characterization of virus-vector interactions is key to a better understanding of how viruses have evolved, their survival in nature and how virus diseases can be controlled. My primary interest is in the vector transmission of plant viruses and the control of plant virus diseases. The ultimate goal is understand, at the molecular level, how an aphid is able to acquire virus from an infected plant and deliver it to a new site of infection. The specificity of interactions between a virus and its vector is determined to a large extent by the properties of the virus coat protein.