Viroids: Possibly the Smallest Pathogens on Earth

Potato spindle tuber disease wasn t a life-or-death situation, but it led to the discovery of viroids: infectious, replicating bits of RNA Hosted by: Michael Aranda ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters—Alexander Wadsworth, Kevin Bealer, Mark Terrio-Cameron, KatieMarie Magnone, Patrick Merrithew, Charles Southerland, Fatima Iqbal, Sultan Alkhulaifi, Tim Curwick, Scott Satovsky Jr, Philippe von Bergen, Bella Nash, Chris Peters, Patrick D. Ashmore, Piya Shedden, Charles George ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/timeline/viroid/ https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1999/dec/boon http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Pages/Viroids.aspx https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25455904 http://www.els.net/WileyCDA/ElsArticle/refId-a0000434.html http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01552/full https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000216.htm http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168827809000592 https://biologydirect.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13062-016-0116-7 http://www.pnas.org/content/86/23/9370.full.pdf http://exploringorigins.org/ribozymes.html http://mcmanuslab.ucsf.edu/node/246 https://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v1/n1/full/nrmicro736.html http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0042682271903424?via%3Dihub https://www.apsnet.org/publications/PlantDisease/BackIssues/Documents/1984Articles/PlantDisease68n01_4.pdf