In <i>Tombusvirus</i>-infected plants, the miRNA-binding behavior of p19 closely corresponded to that <i>in vitro</i> Most importantly, in contrast to controls with a Δp19 virus, infections with wild-type (wt) virus led to changes of the levels of the miRNA-targeted mRNAs, and these changes correlated with the miRNA-binding preferences of p19.