Viruses are the obligatory intracellular parasites infecting microbes, plants, animals and humans. They are dead outside host cell but can take-over the hosts cell machinery as soon as they are into it. Several studies on inhibitor compounds have been done for animal viruses including those that are affecting humans but there is inadequacy in terms of research and literature for plant viruses that are responsible for losses in crop yield and quality loss all across the globe. This could be focal point to study plant viruses, their transmission and pathogenicity and to establish widely used, effective and advanced approaches for their control. The purpose of this review is to discuss various approaches to control plant viruses that have been developed and applied to combat plant viral infections. We have divided these approaches into two categories conventional (meristem-tip culture, cryotherapy, thermotherapy and chemotherapy) and advanced (nucleic acid based approaches like RNA Silencing, cross-protection, transgenic plants, gene pyramiding and protein-protein interaction). Moreover, we have discussed and compared the principles, methodologies, advantages and disadvantages of each technique. The approaches have been explored to promote their application in best suited way on various plants to control viral diseases and to improve food crops quality with increase in production.
Key words: Plant viruses, control, conventional methods, advanced techniques
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