First report of Ugandan cassava brown streak virus on cassava in Democratic Republic of Congo

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Molecular insights into cassava brown streak virus susceptibility and resistance by profiling of the early host response.

Cassava brown streak viruses (CBSVs) are responsible for significant cassava yield losses in eastern sub-Saharan Africa. To study the possible mechanisms of plant resistance to CBSVs we inoculated CBSV-susceptible and -resistant cassava varieties with a mixed infection of CBSVs using top-cleft grafting. Transcriptome profiling of the two cassava varieties was performed at the earliest time-point of full infection (28 days after grafting) in the susceptible scions. The expression of genes encoding proteins in RNA silencing, salicylic acid pathways and callose deposition was altered in the susceptible cassava variety but transcriptional changes were limited in the resistant variety. In total, the expression of 585 genes was altered in the resistant variety as compared to 1292 in the susceptible variety. Transcriptional changes led to activation of beta-1,3-glucanase enzymatic activity and reduction of callose deposition in the susceptible cassava variety. Time course analysis also showed that CBSV replication in susceptible cassava induced a strong up-regulation of RDR1, a gene previously reported to be a susceptibility factor in other potyvirus-host pathosystems. The differences in transcriptional responses to CBSV infection indicated that susceptibility involves restriction of callose deposition at plasmodesmata. Aniline blue staining of callose deposits also indicated that the resistant variety displays a moderate but significant increase in callose deposition at the plasmodesmata. Transcriptome data suggests that resistance does not involve typical anti-viral defence responses (i.e. RNA silencing and salicylic acid). A meta-analysis of the current RNA-seq dataset and selected potyvirus-host and virus-cassava RNA-seq datasets revealed that the conservation of the host response across pathosystems is restricted to genes involved in developmental processes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved