Study the viral disease complex associated with Bhut Jolokia leaf curl disease and application of Virus Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) in model plants for virus management
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Date
2023
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Abstract
Bhut Jolokia (Capsicum chinense Jacq) is one of the hottest chillies and an economically
important crop in North-eastern India. A common problem in cultivation of Bhut Jolokia is the
occurrence of leaf curl diseases that causes huge yield losses (Talukdar et al., 2015). In the present
study, we attempt to identify the associated viruses and viral components in the occurrence of leaf curl
disease in Bhut Jolokia. Sequencing of the PCR amplified viral targets identified multiple viruses. The
results suggest that in the same isolated samples, leaf curl disease is caused by multiple DNA and RNA
viruses rather than a single virus, representing two major families-Geminiviridae and bromoviridae.
We also identified novel betasatellites from Bhut Jolokia infecting samples which has less than 91%
pairwise identity with rest of betasatellite sequences deposited in NCBI. The betasatellites detected in
Bhut Jolokia from Assam are possibly from a novel strain of a virus and might be related to Chilli leaf
curl virus. In addition, understanding the plant-virus interaction mechanisms and identification of
specific plant genes playing vital role in disease development could accelerate the resistance breeding
process in Bhut Jolokia. Therefore, functional analysis of plant endogenous gene in conferring
resistance or susceptibility against Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) using virus induced gene silencing
(VIGS) was conducted. In this study, two Nicotiana tabacum genes- Plasmodesmata located protein
(PDLP) and Soybean genes regulated by cold 2 (SRC2) were silenced using the TRV-based VIGS
system. The results obtained from the experimental work done suggests that both PDLP and SRC2 are
potential candidate susceptibility or resistant genes against CMV infection in Nicotiana benthamiana
plants. We also reported that TRV-based VIGS vectors can be used to effectively silence these
potential candidate genes in Bhut Jolokia. The role of the newly identified betasatellite in promoting
virulence of the cognate virus in still unclear. Thus, further complemention assay is required with or
without the cognate virus in the host plant. Transgene free genome edited virus resistant plants can also
be developed as a long-term goal using CRISPR technology. Further functional studies are required to
validate the role of these genes in conferring resistance or susceptibility to CMV in host plants.
Overall, the present study provides insight into the causal infecting viral disease complex in Bhut
Jolokia and the role of plant endogenous genes in conferring resistance or susceptibility against CMV
using VIGS.