Plant viruses until recently were seen as plant pathogenic entities causing crop losses. Consequently, they were studied from that perspective only. However, recent advances made in molecular biology enabled an entirely a new dimension of plant viruses to emerge out. Plant viruses exhibit an amazing diversity in architecture, genome makeup and reproductive strategies. These facilities have made them to use as ideal tools for biotechnological applications. Biotechnological applications of plant viruses extend in varied fields such as agriculture, horticulture, medicine, pharmacy and nanotechnology. Biotechnological applications in agriculture and horticulture involve enhancing the aesthetics of ornamental plants, cross protection, virus-induced flowering and biological control. Some plant viruses are employed both as carrier vectors and expression vectors. Expression vectors have a great role in vaccinology. Plant virus-derived vectors are developed for virus induced gene silencing and nanotechnology. Virus-based tools have been developed to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 constructs for precise genome editing. Virus-like particles (VLP) are excellent candidate for vaccine production. VLPs also meet the desirable features to be used as nanoparticles which have wide applications in the medical field

Plant viruses, Biotechnology, Vectors, VLPs, Virus-induced gene silencing, CRISPR/Cas9 Nanotechnology, Gene editing

Since the discovery of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) in the 1890s, viruses have been largely viewed ne pathogens. Most of the research in these 130 years has been carried out in that direction covering discovery, detection, epidemiology, disease loses, prevention, control etc. With advances made in the molecular aspects of different viruses, the misunderstanding of viruses as only the pathogens are slowly being erased out. Understanding of molecular architecture, working system coupled with biochemistry, host parasite interaction has opened a new dimensions of plant viruses hitherto unimagined. Manipulation of genomes of viruses of became possible employing the toolkits of modern molecular biology as desired. This has opened new vistas in the field plant virology. Plant viruses are proving to be ideal candidates as much as bacteria and yeasts. Biotechnological potentials of engineered plant viruses and their derived products like virus-like particles (VLPs) are rolling out in a range of fields like genetic engineering. Agriculture, medicine and nanotechnology. In this article made an attempt to bring forth the recent biotechnological applications of plant viruses and VLP’s

S. Ram Reddy, G. Renuka and P. Pallavi (2025). Plant Viruses- Molecular and Biotechnological Applications. Biological Forum, 17(4): 17-27