Viroids are small circular RNA molecules which have been found to infect many dicot species. Only coconut cadang-cadang viroid and coconut tinangaja viroid have been reported so far to infect a monocot (coconut). Data mining in silico has proven an efficient approach to identify new viruses/viroids, and a systematic screen of public transcriptomic data revealed a 648 nucleotides (nt) sequence potentially representing a novel viroid-like RNA in a transcriptome shotgun assembly from Dendrobium officinale. This sequence contained two central conserved regions (CCRs) characteristic of members of the genus Apscaviroid, indicating that the viroid-like RNA is 324 nt in length. The infectivity of dimeric RNA transcripts generated by in vitro transcription of a synthetic cDNA, was demonstrated by directly injecting into the stems of young Dendrobium officinale plants. The presence of this novel viroid, tentatively designated as Dendrobium viroid (DVd), in the inoculated plants was confirmed by 2D-PAGE together with northern hybridization. DVd is predicted to have a rod-like secondary structure containing a CCR and a terminal conserved region (TCR), and phylogenetic analysis shows that it groups with the known members of the genus Apscaviroid. It is most closely related to citrus viroid V (56% nt identity). A field survey revealed a low DVd incidence (0.96%) in Dendrobium species in China. To our best knowledge, DVd is the only viroid known to infect orchids and the third one from monocotyledonous plants.
Keywords: Dendrobium; Infectivity; Monocotyledonous plant; Transcriptome shotgun assembly; Viroid.
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