Viroid-like RNAs widespread and infectious?

Visit the ViroiDoc YouTube channel to watch a featured video lecture by senior researcher Beatriz Navarro Ramirez.

Originally thought to be restricted to plants and animals, viroid-like RNAs have been recently found to be widely distributed in a variety of ecosystems, extending their host range to fungi and prokaryotes. However, the biological and ecological significance of these new putative infectious circular RNA elements remains to be investigated.

Curious to learn more?

Visit the ViroiDoc YouTube channel to watch a featured video lecture by senior researcher Beatriz Navarro Ramirez, recorded in April 2025 during the public session of the EU-funded ViroiDoc project's kick-off meeting.

Beatriz Navarro Ramirez is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Italy. Her research focuses on the study of the molecular interactions between viroids/virus and their host plants.

Beatriz Navarro Ramirez also serves as the supervisor for Doctoral Candidate (DC8) who will work on the individual research project “Identification and characterization of novel infectious circular viroid-like RNAs in hosts belonging to different kingdoms at the CNR-IPSP in cooperation with the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro (UNIBA-DiSSPA).

Explore more content on viroid research by visiting ViroiDoc YouTube channel.