Viruses as Stress Factors and Their Management in Vegetable Crops

Vegetables are very important invaluable resource for the nutrition of the world’s population. Biotic stress and viruses, in particular, are one of the major environmental stressors that damage vegetable plants and the quality and quantity of agricultural yield. More than 200 virus species from different virus genera have been identified to infect vegetable crops affecting vegetable quality and yield. The control of these viral diseases is an important economic and commercial problem for all humanity. Most infectious plant diseases have a virological etiology and are increasing with each passing year, which makes them a real threat to the health status of many vegetable crops. Viral diseases can also reduce the tolerance of different cultivars to adverse environmental conditions and thus threaten the survival of vegetable crops. Management of viral diseases requires an integrated management system of different methods, molecular tracking aimed at preventing and delaying virus infection and reduction of damages in vegetable crops.