Resistance of the CRISPR-Cas13a Gene-Editing System to Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid Infection in Tomato and

Overview

Journal Viruses

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2024 Sep 28

PMID 39339877

Authors

Ying Wei Khoo

Qingsong Wang

Shangwu Liu

Binhui Zhan

Tengfei Xu

Wenxia Lv

Guangjing Liu

Shifang Li

Zhixiang Zhang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Gene-editing technology, specifically the CRISPR-Cas13a system, has shown promise in breeding plants resistant to RNA viruses. This system targets RNA and, theoretically, can also combat RNA-based viroids. To test this, the CRISPR-Cas13a system was introduced into tomato plants via transient expression and into through transgenic methods, using CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) targeting the conserved regions of both sense and antisense genomes of potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd). In tomato plants, the expression of CRISPR-Cas13a and crRNAs substantially reduced PSTVd accumulation and alleviated disease symptoms. In transgenic plants, the PSTVd levels were lower as compared to wild-type plants. Several effective crRNAs targeting the PSTVd genomic RNA were also identified. These results demonstrate that the CRISPR-Cas13a system can effectively target and combat viroid RNAs, despite their compact structures.

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