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Potato virus X is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Alphaflexiviridae and the order Tymovirales.
PVX is found mainly in potatoes and is only transmitted mechanically. There are no insect or fungal vectors for this virus. This virus causes mild or no symptoms in most potato varieties, but when Potato virus Y is present, synergy between these two viruses causes severe symptoms in potatoes. The virion has helical symmetry and a deeply grooved, highly hydrated surface and is made of a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome of approximately 6.4 kb. This is wrapped in approximately 1300 units of a single coat protein type, with 8.9 CP units per helix turn. The genome is capped at the 5′-end and poly-adenylated at the 3′-terminus. It contains five open reading frames encoding five proteins: the RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase , the movement proteins encoded by three overlapping ORFs that form the Triple Gene Block module , and the CP.
Virus indexing and limited generation production of potato, which starts from disease-free tissue culture plantlets, has nearly eliminated this virus from many countries' potato supply.