Viral diseases are among the main limiting factors for agronomic production. Viruses require the host’s cellular machinery to be able to infect, which implies complex interactions between it and the plant. Knowledge of the molecular bases that regulate these interactions is essential for the design of more effective and durable control strategies. Most studies about this association are based on transcriptomics and interactomics, while translatomics analyses have, so far, been scarce despite the important role that the interaction between the virus and host translation machinery plays during the infection. The objective of this project is to characterize the translational landscape of the interaction between Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), which causes massive damage to tomato crops worldwide[1], and tomato plants. We are using Ribo-Seq to identify the translational changes that occur in tomato plants in response to infection by TYLCV and to characterize the translation of viral genes. We are using two isogenic tomato lines, one tolerant (ty-5 mutant) and one susceptible (Santa Clara). Ty-5 contains a recessive mutation located on the Pelota gene, an mRNA surveillance factor involved in the recycling phase of the translational cycle[2]. The study of this mutant will give additional information about the role the translational machinery plays in the viral infection. In addition, using RIP, we are attempting to uncover the translational machinery associated to viral transcripts so that we can determine whether certain riboproteins or translation factors are preferred over others. We will present the advances we have made regarding these objectives.
[1]Prasad et al. (2020). Trends Plant Sci 25:897-911.
[2]Lapidot et al. (2015). PLoS Genet. 11:e1005538
The authors thank R. Fernández-Muñoz (IHSM) and L. Boiteaux (EMBRAPA) for sharing the seeds.
Funding: Grant P18-RT1218 to CM and ERB, a RYC-2017-1218 to CM, and Plan propio of the University of Málaga
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