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DISEASE RECOVERY

Secondary siRNAs rescue virus-infected plants

Nature Plants volume 4, pages 136–137 (2018)Cite this article

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Investigations of natural recovery in plants infected with oilseed rape mosaic virus unveil how secondary siRNAs mediate the attenuation of viral suppressors of RNA silencing and sink-to-source disease recovery.

Plant viruses are the most disastrous of pathogens that cause enormous economic losses due to reduction of crop quality and quantity worldwide. When facing virus infections, plants protect themselves through many different ways, of which the most conserved and effective is RNA silencing. This antiviral immunity involves production of multiple species of small RNAs1, including (1) virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) that induce viral RNA genome repression through slicing, translation inhibition and hypermethylation; (2) endogenous virus-activated siRNAs (vasiRNAs) that guide downregulation of the host negative regulators in antiviral response; and (3) 24-nucleotide host siRNAs that mediate methylation of host genes. At the same time, host microRNAs engage in this defence via induction of host antiviral genes that are involved in RNA silencing pathways and the reactive oxygen species pathway2,3. However, viruses have evolved mechanisms to counteract these antiviral strategies, most notably through expression of viral suppressors of RNA silencing (VSRs). VSRs take advantage of RNA silencing and plant hormone pathways to disrupt plant fortifications4. Even so, some plant–virus interactions end up with symptom recovery and have potential to reveal vital molecular targets for attaining disease control5. The first symptom recovery paper was published as long ago as 1928, and recent studies have shown that symptom recovery is associated with various antiviral RNA silencing pathways6, but the specific components required for recovery are still not clear. In this issue of Nature Plants, Kørner et al. demonstrated that symptom recovery is mediated by antiviral secondary siRNAs.

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Fig. 1: Symptom recovery reflects the establishment of a tolerant state in infected tissues.

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  1. College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yu Huang & Yi Li

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  1. Yu Huang
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  2. Yi Li
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Correspondence to Yi Li.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Huang, Y., Li, Y. Secondary siRNAs rescue virus-infected plants. Nature Plants 4, 136–137 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0118-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0118-9

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