PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ravi B. Anjanappa
AU  - Devang Mehta
AU  - Michal J. Okoniewski
AU  - Alicja Szabelska
AU  - Wilhelm Gruissem
AU  - Hervé Vanderschuren
TI  - Early transcriptome response to brown streak virus infection in susceptible and resistant cassava varieties
AID  - 10.1101/100552
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 100552
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/17/100552.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/17/100552.full
AB  - Cassava brown streak disease is caused by cassava brown streak viruses (CBSVs), which are responsible for significant cassava yield losses in eastern sub–Saharan Africa.We inoculated CBSV-susceptible and -resistant cassava varieties with a mixed infection of CBSVs using top-cleft grafting. Virus titres in grafted scions were monitored in a time course experiment. We performed RNA-Seq of the two cassava varieties at the earliest time-point of full infection in the susceptible scions. A meta-analysis of the current RNA-Seq dataset and selected, previously reported, crop–virus RNA-Seq datasets was performed to investigate similarities in gene expression regulation.Genes encoding proteins in RNA silencing and salicylic acid pathways were regulated in the susceptible cassava variety but transcriptional changes were limited in the resistant variety. After infection, genes related to callose deposition at plasmodesmata were regulated and callose deposition was significantly reduced in the susceptible cassava variety.The differences in transcriptional responses to CBSV infection in susceptible and resistant varieties indicate that resistance involves callose deposition at plasmodesmata but does not trigger typical anti-viral defence responses. Our meta–analysis of selected host–potyvirus and cassava–virus infections reveals comparable host responses across pathosystems only at similar time points after infection or infection of a common host.