[2] The virus was first identified in 1966 by Calvert and Harrison in Britain,[3] and is now reported in many other potato cultivating regions of the world including U.S.A., Canada, China, Pakistan, Japan, South American countries and many parts of Europe.

[4] Many disease management systems have been found to be ineffective against the virus, although a combination of sanitation and vector controls seems to work well.

As the name implies, the main host is potato; however, this virus also affects some common vegetable plants and weeds.

[8] The spores that PMTV is vectored in can live in the soil for up to 18 years giving the virus a long period of survival.

The critical period for infection of S. subterranea and consequently PMTV is earlier in the potato growth cycle, during stolon formation and tuber set, which lasts 3–4 weeks.

[10] As a pomovirus, PMTV uses the host plant's machinery for replication and translation which both follow positive-stranded RNA models.

[9]The vector for PMTV, S. subterranea, is a slime mold known to cause powdery scab disease that favors wet and humid conditions, specifically poorly drained soil.

Such moist environments helps facilitate the vector's zoospore movement to the infection sites (roots and tubers).

[15] This can be due to the fact that fertilization enhances root growth, which provides a larger amount of tissue that can be infected.

This is because plants need to have immunity towards S. subterranea in its tubers, roots, and stolons in order to completely resist infection by the vector and virus.

Although resistance breeding has not yet provided benefits for commercially available PMTV varieties, there have been some promising results in ongoing research.

Soil treatments, such as fungicides containing fluazinam, have been shown to be partially effective at reducing numbers of viable S. subterranea spores available to germinate into zoospores.

These symptoms are mainly morphological defects that yield unaesthetic potatoes which face commercial rejection from processors and packers.

[13] In addition to economic losses, the presence of PMTV can also negatively impact the reputation of a country (or region, state, or farm) for other exports.

The fourth ORF codes for another cysteine-rich protein that increases virulence and has some RNA silencing suppressive activity.