Аннотация:Since the disclosure of the citrus leprosis virus C (CiLV-C) genome and the creation of the family Kitaviridae, viruses of the eight accepted species within three genera of kitavirids have become intriguing pieces of the plant-infecting virome. With genomes split into two, three, or four single-stranded (+) RNA molecules, most of the kitaviruses produce non-systemic infections that, in the case of citrus leprosis disease, entail serious economic losses to the citrus crop. Phylogenetic analyses based on the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase proteins indicate that kitavirus closest relatives are a group of unclassified arthropod-infecting viruses tentatively known as negeviruses and nege/kita-like viruses.Contributions gathered in this Research Topic offer data that broaden the boundaries of the diversity of kitaviruses and nege/kita-like viruses, provide, with a special emphasis on the cilevirus CiLV-C, new insight into the interaction between kitavirids and plants, and increase the understanding of the role of some viral open reading frames (ORF) typical to these viruses. They also demonstrate the vectorial activity of mites of the genus Brevipalpus for some of the newly described kitaviruses and postulate a hypothesis describing the movement of CiLV-C virions in mites. Particular attention to the forces modulating the population structure of CiLV-C, and the likely evolutionary pathways that could give rise to the diversity of viruses in the family Kitaviridae are also addressed.