The simplest RNA replicons, viroids: A tribute to Ricardo Flores

Abstract

[EN] Dr. Ricardo Flores, a guru of viroid science, passed away from cancer in December two years ago. The journal Virus Research has recently invited Francesco Di Serio, Nobuhiro Suzuki and myself to organize a special issue entitled `The simplest RNA replicons, viroids: A tribute to (the legacy of) Ricardo Flores¿. This special issue is published in memory of Dr. Flores who made tremendous contributions to the field of viroid research and served as an inspiring mentor to many students and post-doctoral fellows (see Pallas et al. in this special issue). Dr. Flores has made very significant contributions on the identification, replication, pathogenesis and evolution of viroids -minimal non-protein-coding circular RNAs (250¿400 nt) able to replicate and incite diseases in plants- which are the lowest step of the biological scale (Pallas et al., 2022).