Alphasatellites (family Alphasatellitidae) are circular, single-stranded DNA molecules (~1–1.4 kb) that encode a replication-associated protein and have commonly been associated with some members of the families Geminiviridae, Nanoviridae, and Metaxyviridae. Similar molecules have also been found associated with coconut foliar decay virus (Gronenborn et al. 2018) (family Metaxyviridae, genus Cofodevirus) (Walker et al. 2021). Alphasatellites are unable to transreplicate the bona fide genome components of these “helper viruses” or vice versa, but they do rely on them for encapsidation, movement, and vector transmission (Briddon et al. 2018). Alphasatellites may replicate either independently or in association with helper viruses, including geminiviruses (begomoviruses or mastreviruses), babuviruses, nanoviruses, and metaxyviruses, infecting several plant species around the globe and menacing the food security system. Recently, according to the International committee on taxonomy of viruses (ICTV), since the establishment of the family Alphasatellitidae in 2018 (Briddon et al. 2018), various new alphasatellites have been identified, which is further divided into three subfamilies, Geminialphasatellitinae, Nanoalphasatellitinae, and Petromoalphasatellitinae, which accommodate geminivirus-, nanovirus-, and petromo-associated alphasatellites, called geminialphasatellites, nanoalphasatellites, and petromoalphasatellites, respectively. Initially, alphasatellites were described in 1999 as being involved in the induction of devastating viral diseases, such as cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) and ageratum yellow vein disease (AYVD) (Mansoor et al. 1999; Saunders and Stanley 1999; Nawaz-ul-Rehman and Fauquet 2009; Briddon et al. 2018; McNulty and Sullivan 2018; Shafiq et al. 2020; Varsani et al. 2021). The names of the alphasatellite genera are derived from the names of the type species; therefore Colecusatellite is named after the first discovered begomovirus alphasatellite, cotton leaf curl Multan alphasatellite (CLCuMA, genus Colecusatellite, family Geminialphasatellitinae). Furthermore, the names of alphasatellite species are most probably derived from their helper viruses with which they have been initially identified.