Engineering resistance against viroids

Curr Opin Virol. 2017 Oct:26:1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.coviro.2017.07.003. Epub 2017 Jul 21.

Abstract

Viroids, the smallest infectious agents endowed with autonomous replication, are tiny single-stranded circular RNAs (∼250 to 400nt) without protein-coding ability that, despite their simplicity, infect and often cause disease in herbaceous and woody plants of economic relevance. To mitigate the resulting losses, several strategies have been developed, the most effective of which include: firstly, search for naturally resistant cultivars and breeding for resistance, secondly, induced resistance by pre-infection with mild strains, thirdly, ribonucleases targeting double-stranded RNAs and catalytic antibodies endowed with intrinsic ribonuclease activity, fourthly, antisense, and sense, RNAs, fifthly, catalytic antisense RNAs derived from hammerhead ribozymes, and sixthly, hairpin RNAs and artificial small RNAs for RNA interference. The mechanisms underpinning these strategies, most of which have been implemented via genetic transformation, together with their present results and future potential, are the subject of this review.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Disease Resistance*
  • Plant Diseases / immunology*
  • Plant Diseases / prevention & control*
  • Plants / genetics
  • Plants / immunology*
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / immunology*
  • Viroids / genetics*
  • Viroids / pathogenicity*