Abstract
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) belongs to the Tobamovirus genus and is a major global plant virus on cucurbit plants. It causes severe disease symptoms on infected watermelon plants (Citrullus lanatus), particularly inducing fruit decay. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of CGMMV-induced watermelon fruit decay. For this study, comparative analysis of transcriptome profiles of CGMMV-inoculated and mock-inoculated watermelon fruits were conducted via RNA-Seq. A total of 1,621 differently expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in CGMMV-inoculated watermelon, among which 1,052 were up-regulated and 569 were down-regulated. Functional annotation analysis showed that several DEGs were involved in carbohydrate metabolism, hormone biosynthesis and signaling transduction, secondary metabolites biosynthesis, and plant-pathogen interactions. We furthermore found that some DEGs were related to cell wall components and photosynthesis, which may directly be involve in the development of the symptoms associated with diseased watermelons. To confirm the RNA-Seq data, 15 DEGs were selected for gene expression analysis by qRT-PCR. The results showed a strong correlation between these two sets of data. Our study identified many candidate genes for further functional studies during CGMMV-watermelon interactions, and will furthermore help to clarify the understanding of pathogenic mechanism underlying CGMMV infection in cucurbit plants.
Highlights
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) is a member of the Tobamovirus genus in the Virgaviridae family and is an important viral pathogen of cucurbit crops worldwide[1,2,3,4]
The presence of CGMMV in both virus-inoculated and mock-inoculated fruit samples were confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), in which only the virus-inoculated sample gained PCR products as the positive control (Fig. 1c)
The main sugar contents in CGMMV infected watermelons have been determined in our previous study[40], and the results showed that the virus infection significantly affected these three main sugar contents and the total sugar compositions
Summary
Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) is a member of the Tobamovirus genus in the Virgaviridae family and is an important viral pathogen of cucurbit crops worldwide[1,2,3,4]. In China, the occurrence of CGMMV in watermelon-planting areas was first reported in 200617 and has been found in many provinces and regions across China It usually causes severe disease symptoms on infected watermelon plants, especially inducing fruit decay, which is called ‘blood flesh’, where the inner pulp transforms to water-soaked dirty red and even flesh acidulated[4,11,18]. High-throughput sequencing techniques, such as RNA-Seq, provide a powerful tool to investigate the global transcriptome changes of plants in response to pathogen infection. The purpose of our study was to investigate transcriptional changes of watermelon fruits after CGMMV infection, and we expected to offer novel insights into the molecular basis of CGMMV on cucurbit plants. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first transcriptome study to investigate the comparative analysis of transcriptome profiles between CGMMV-infected and healthy watermelon fruits
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
