scholarly journals Global Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Insights into the Response of ‘Etrog’ Citron (Citrus medica L.) to Citrus Exocortis Viroid Infection

Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Wang ◽  
Jiaxing Wu ◽  
Yuanjian Qiu ◽  
Sagheer Atta ◽  
Changyong Zhou ◽  
...  

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.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 4224
Author(s):  
Urban Kunej ◽  
Jernej Jakše ◽  
Sebastjan Radišek ◽  
Nataša Štajner

RNA interference is an evolutionary conserved mechanism by which organisms regulate the expression of genes in a sequence-specific manner to modulate defense responses against various abiotic or biotic stresses. Hops are grown for their use in brewing and, in recent years, for the pharmaceutical industry. Hop production is threatened by many phytopathogens, of which Verticillium, the causal agent of Verticillium wilt, is a major contributor to yield losses. In the present study, we performed identification, characterization, phylogenetic, and expression analyses of three Argonaute, two Dicer-like, and two RNA-dependent RNA polymerase genes in the susceptible hop cultivar Celeia and the resistant cultivar Wye Target after infection with Verticillium nonalfalfae. Phylogeny results showed clustering of hop RNAi proteins with their orthologues from the closely related species Cannabis sativa, Morus notabilis and Ziziphus jujuba which form a common cluster with species of the Rosaceae family. Expression analysis revealed downregulation of argonaute 2 in both cultivars on the third day post-inoculation, which may result in reduced AGO2-siRNA-mediated posttranscriptional gene silencing. Both cultivars may also repress ta-siRNA biogenesis at different dpi, as we observed downregulation of argonaute 7 in the susceptible cultivar on day 1 and downregulation of RDR6 in the resistant cultivar on day 3 after inoculation.


Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charith Raj Adkar-Purushothama ◽  
Jean-Pierre Perreault

To date, two plant genes encoding RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRs) that play major roles in the defense against RNA viruses have been identified: (i) RdR1, which is responsible for the viral small RNAs (vsRNAs) found in virus-infected plants, and, (ii) RdR6, which acts as a surrogate in the absence of RdR1. In this study, the role of RdR6 in the defense against viroid infection was examined by knock-down of RdR6 followed by potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) infection. The suppression of RdR6 expression increased the plant’s growth, as was illustrated by the plant’s increased height. PSTVd infection of RdR6 compromised plants resulted in an approximately three-fold increase in the accumulation of viroid RNA as compared to that seen in control plants. Additionally, RNA gel blot assay revealed an increase in the number of viroids derived small RNAs in RdR6 suppressed plants as compared to control plants. These data provide a direct correlation between RdR6 and viroid accumulation and indicate the role of RDR6 in the plant’s susceptibility to viroid infection.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 1329-1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Bucher ◽  
Titia Sijen ◽  
Peter de Haan ◽  
Rob Goldbach ◽  
Marcel Prins

ABSTRACT Posttranscriptional silencing of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene in Nicotiana benthamiana plants was suppressed when these plants were infected with Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), a plant-infecting member of the Bunyaviridae. Infection with TSWV resulted in complete reactivation of GFP expression, similar to the case for Potato virus Y, but distinct from that for Cucumber mosaic virus, two viruses known to carry genes encoding silencing suppressor proteins. Agrobacterium-based leaf injections with individual TSWV genes identified the NSS gene to be responsible for the RNA silencing-suppressing activity displayed by this virus. The absence of short interfering RNAs in NSS-expressing leaf sectors suggests that the tospoviral NSS protein interferes with the intrinsic RNA silencing present in plants. Suppression of RNA silencing was also observed when the NS3 protein of the Rice hoja blanca tenuivirus, a nonenveloped negative-strand virus, was expressed. These results indicate that plant-infecting negative-strand RNA viruses carry a gene for a suppressor of RNA silencing.


Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 582
Author(s):  
Francisco Vázquez Prol ◽  
M. Pilar López-Gresa ◽  
Ismael Rodrigo ◽  
José María Bellés ◽  
Purificación Lisón

Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd) is known to cause different symptoms in citrus trees, and its mechanism of infection has been studied in tomato as an experimental host, producing ribosomal stress on these plants. Some of the symptoms caused by CEVd in tomato plants resemble those produced by the phytohormone ethylene. The present study is focused on elucidating the relationship between CEVd infection and ethylene on disease development. To this purpose, the ethylene insensitive Never ripe (Nr) tomato mutants were infected with CEVd, and several aspects such as susceptibility to infection, defensive response, ethylene biosynthesis and ribosomal stress were studied. Phenotypic characterization revealed higher susceptibility to CEVd in these mutants, which correlated with higher expression levels of both defense and ethylene biosynthesis genes, as well as the ribosomal stress marker SlNAC082. In addition, Northern blotting revealed compromised ribosome biogenesis in all CEVd infected plants, particularly in Nr mutants. Our results indicate a higher ethylene biosynthesis in Nr mutants and suggest an important role of this phytohormone in disease development and ribosomal stress caused by viroid infection.


Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Valenzuela-Riffo ◽  
Paz E. Zúñiga ◽  
Luis Morales-Quintana ◽  
Mauricio Lolas ◽  
Marcela Cáceres ◽  
...  

Several attempts have been made to study the effects of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) on plants in the past years. However, the comparative effects of the number and phenological time of MeJA applications on the activation of defense systems is currently unknown in strawberries. In the present research, we performed three field treatments during strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa ‘Camarosa’) fruit development and ripening which consisted of differential MeJA applications at flowering (M3), and the large green (M2 and M3) and red ripe (M1, M2, and M3) fruit stages. We also checked changes in gene expression related to plant defense against Botrytis cinerea inoculation post-harvest. In M3 treatment, we observed an upregulation of the anthocyanin and lignin contents and the defense-related genes, encoding for chitinases, β-1,3-glucanases and polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins, after harvest (0 hpi), along with the jasmonate signaling-related genes FaMYC2 and FaJAZ1 at 48 h after B. cinerea inoculation (48 hpi) during postharvest storage. Although we did not find differences in gray mold incidence between the MeJA treatments and control, these results suggest that preharvest MeJA treatment from the flowering stage onwards (M3) primes defense responses mediated by the upregulation of different defense-related genes and retains the upregulation of MYC2 and JAZ1 at 48 hpi.


2007 ◽  
Vol 405 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun-ichi Saito ◽  
Shinnosuke Toriumi ◽  
Kenjiro Awano ◽  
Hidenori Ichijo ◽  
Keiichi Sasaki ◽  
...  

ASK1 (apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1), a MKKK (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase), is activated in response to cytotoxic stresses, such as H2O2 and TNFα (tumour necrosis factor α). ASK1 induction initiates a signalling cascade leading to apoptosis. After exposure of cells to H2O2, ASK1 is transiently activated by autophosphorylation at Thr845. The protein then associates with PP5 (protein serine/threonine phosphatase 5), which inactivates ASK1 by dephosphorylation of Thr845. Although this feedback regulation mechanism has been elucidated, it remains unclear how ASK1 is maintained in the dephosphorylated state under non-stressed conditions. In the present study, we have examined the possible role of PP2Cϵ (protein phosphatase 2Cϵ), a member of PP2C family, in the regulation of ASK1 signalling. Following expression in HEK-293 cells (human embryonic kidney cells), wild-type PP2Cϵ inhibited ASK1-induced activation of an AP-1 (activator protein 1) reporter gene. Conversely, a dominant-negative PP2Cϵ mutant enhanced AP-1 activity. Exogenous PP2Cϵ associated with exogenous ASK1 in HEK-293 cells under non-stressed conditions, inactivating ASK1 by decreasing Thr845 phosphorylation. The association of endogenous PP2Cϵ and ASK1 was also observed in mouse brain extracts. PP2Cϵ directly dephosphorylated ASK1 at Thr845in vitro. In contrast with PP5, PP2Cϵ transiently dissociated from ASK1 within cells upon H2O2 treatment. These results suggest that PP2Cϵ maintains ASK1 in an inactive state by dephosphorylation in quiescent cells, supporting the possibility that PP2Cϵ and PP5 play different roles in H2O2-induced regulation of ASK1 activity.


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