Viroids are small infectious pathogens.[1] They are composed solely of a short strand of circular, single-stranded RNA. Unlike viruses, they have no protein coating. All known viroids are inhabitants of angiosperms,[2]and most cause diseases, whose respective economic importance to humans varies widely.
The first discoveries of viroids in the 1970s triggered the historically third major extension of the biosphere—to include smaller lifelike entities —after the discoveries, in 1675 by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (of the "subvisible" microorganisms) and in 1892/1898 by Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovsky and Martinus Beijerinck (of the "submicroscopic" viruses). The unique properties of viroids have been recognized by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, in creating a new order of subviral agents.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viroid
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