Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 436: Exogenous Application of dsRNA for Protection against Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus

Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 436: Exogenous Application of dsRNA for Protection against Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus Viruses doi: 10.3390/v16030436 Authors: Fulco Frascati Silvia Rotunno Gian Paolo Accotto Emanuela Noris Anna Maria Vaira Laura Miozzi Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) is an emerging plant pathogen, fast spreading in Asian and Mediterranean regions, and is considered the most harmful geminivirus of cucurbits in the Mediterranean. ToLCNDV infects several plant and crop species from a range of families, including Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Up to now, protection from ToLCNDV infection has been achieved mainly by RNAi-mediated transgenic resistance, and non-transgenic fast-developing approaches are an urgent need. Plant protection by the delivery of dsRNAs homologous to a pathogen target sequence is an RNA interference-based biotechnological approach that avoids cultivating transgenic plants and has been already shown effective against RNA viruses and viroids. However, the efficacy of this approach against DNA viruses, particularly Geminiviridae family, is still under study. Here, the protection induced by exogenous application of a chimeric dsRNA targeting all the coding regions of the ToLCNDV DNA-A was evaluated in zucchini, an important crop strongly affected by this virus. A reduction in the number of infected plants and a delay in symptoms appearance, associated with a tendency of reduction in th...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research