Transcriptomic analysis of the interaction geminivirus-tomato

Abstract

Geminiviridae family is one of the main families of plant pathogenic viruses with large relevance as they cause great losses worldwide in commercial crops and crops destined to food production. Geminiviruses present a little single-stranded DNA genome and a capsid composed of two twin icosahedral parts. Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) belongs to the Begomovirus genus and is transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. With only 6 viral proteins, this geminivirus must create a proper environment for viral replication, transcription and propagation. Behind the apparent simplicity of geminiviruses lies a complex network of molecular interactions with their host and even their natural vector, which induces a wide variety of transcriptional, post-transcriptional and chromatinic changes in both the plant and the geminivirus. In order to study these changes and decipher the effects of the transmission vector on the infection, we carried out a global approximation of the TYLCV-tomato interaction to generate integrated single-base resolution maps by NGS (next-generation sequencing) of the transcriptome, smallRNAome and methylome of the pathogen and the host.

Tomato plants (Moneymaker) were infected with TYLCV under controlled conditions of light and temperature using Agrobacterium tumefaciens or its natural vector. Apical tissue from these plants was collected at different time points (2, 7, 14 and 21 days after inoculation), and three biological replicas were generated for each treatment and time. Total RNA and DNA was extracted and analysed by RNA-Seq, smallRNA-Seq and Bisulfite-Seq. The transcriptome of the tomato-TYLCV interaction will be presented and discussed.