21st Century directions in polydnavirus research

While the past decade has seen great strides in polydnavirus (PDV) genomics characterization, the functional genomics era in polydnavirus biology is just now beginning to unfold. Applications of polydnavirus research in agriculture, biotechnology, and pharmaceutics are now possible and hold great promise for the future. The use of ‘designer PDV genes’ in building better biopesticides and developing transgenic plants protected against crop damage and producing pharmaceutical products are just a few options. Our appreciation of the complexity of the evolutionary pathways leading to the association of viruses with endoparasitic wasps, and the multiplicity of factors likely impacting those pathways in parasitoids of lepidopteran vs. dipteran vs. other species of hosts, has been greatly enhanced by recent progress in polydnavirus genomics and molecular systematics studies. Yet other exciting discoveries now await us.