Abstract
Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd) is the causal agent of citrus exocortis disease. We employed CEVd-infected ‘Etrog’ citron as a system to study the feedback regulation mechanism using transcriptome analysis in this study. Three months after CEVd infection, the transcriptome of fresh leaves was analyzed, and 1530 differentially expressed genes were detected. The replication of CEVd in citron induced upregulation of genes encoding key proteins that were involved in the RNA silencing pathway such as Dicer-like 2, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 1, argonaute 2, argonaute 7, and silencing defective 3, as well as those genes encoding proteins that are related to basic defense responses. Many genes involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis and chitinase activity were upregulated, whereas other genes related to cell wall and phytohormone signal transduction were downregulated. Moreover, genes encoding disease resistance proteins, pathogenicity-related proteins, and heat shock cognate 70 kDa proteins were also upregulated in response to CEVd infection. These results suggest that basic defense and RNA silencing mechanisms are activated by CEVd infection, and this information improves our understanding of the pathogenesis of viroids in woody plants.
Highlights
Viroids are small, circular, infectious RNAs that do not encode any protein, and their genomes range from 246 to 433 nucleotides [1,2]
The ‘Etrog’ citron seedlings that were infected with RNA transcripts showed a severe syndrome compared to the uninfected ‘Etrog’ citron, which was characterized by stunting, leaf curling, and midvein, petiole, and stem necrosis (Figure 1E)
Studies compared the differences in tomato transcriptomes induced by potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) [14], and two studies examined changes of host gene expression in different tomato cultivars following
Summary
Circular, infectious RNAs that do not encode any protein, and their genomes range from 246 to 433 nucleotides [1,2]. Viroids can replicate autonomously in higher plants, and they can infect important economically significant crops and cause severe diseases [3]. They are the causative agents of various diseases affecting herbaceous and woody plants as well as agronomic and ornamental plants around the world and can cause chlorosis, leaf deformation, stunting, and even plant death on sensitive hosts [4]. Cause RNA silencing of the host mRNA to induce disease symptoms in higher plants [5].
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