This video, we're going to talk about the plant virus infection cycle. And so the infection cycle of a plant virus, which can be transmitted via an insect, actually occurs in a series of 4 steps that we have numbered down below in our image 1 through 4. And so, what you can see here is that in the very first step of a plant virus infection, the virion or the plant viral particle is going to enter the plant cell at a wound site. And so what you'll notice here is that the plant up here is wounded, and you can see that its cell wall has been damaged perhaps by an insect. And so this allows for the virion, again the plant viral particle, to enter into the plant cell. Now in the second step of a plant virus infection, the genome is going to be replicated. The viral genome will be replicated, and viral capsid proteins are going to be synthesized specifically in the nucleus. And so you can see here that within the nucleus that all of these viral capsid proteins and viral genomes are being synthesized and replicated.
Then in the third step of a plant virus infection, the mature virions or the mature plant viral particles are going to be assembled in the cytoplasm of the plant cell. And so you can see that in the third step here, the assembly of the plant viral proteins and the plant viral genomes is going to occur in the cytoplasm. And so these new viral particles are going to be produced. And then in the fourth and final step of a plant virus infection, the virions can basically enter into adjacent cells via the plasmodesmata, which are the openings that you see here, between plant cells. And so you can see that the virion is able to move to a neighboring plant cell over here, via these plasmodesmata, these openings in the cell walls of leaves. And so this allows for the virus to continue its infection in neighboring plant cells.
Now it is important to note that the plant viral infection of plants usually stunts their growth. And so the growth of the plant is going to be inhibited and limited. But it may also kill the plant as well. And so, this here concludes our brief lesson on the plant virus infection cycle, and we'll be able to get some practice applying these concepts as we move forward. So I'll see you all in our next video.