TY - JOUR T1 - RdDM pathway is required for <em>Tobamovirus</em>-induced symptomatology production JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.01.21.912923 SP - 2020.01.21.912923 AU - Melisa Leone AU - Diego Zavallo AU - Andrea Venturuzzi AU - Sebastián Asurmendi Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/01/22/2020.01.21.912923.abstract N2 - Small RNAs (sRNA) are important molecules for gene regulation in plants and play an essential role in plant-pathogen interactions. Researchers have evaluated the relationship between viral infections as well as the endogenous accumulation of sRNAs and the transcriptional changes associated with the production of symptoms, little is known about a possible direct role of epigenetics, mediated by 24-nt sRNAs, in the induction of these symptoms.With the use of different RNA directed DNA methylation pathway mutants and triple demethylase mutants, here we demonstrate that the disruption of RdDM pathway during viral infection produced alterations in the plant transcriptomic changes (because of the infection) and in symptomatology.This study represents the initial step in exposing that DNA methylation directed by endogenous sRNAs has an important role, uncoupled to defense, in the production of symptoms associated with plant-virus interactions.Significance statement The crop yield losses induced by phytoviruses are mainly associated with the symptoms of the disease. DNA modifications as methylation, can modulate the information coded by the sequence, process named epigenetics. Viral infection can change the expression patterns of different genes linked to defenses and symptoms. This work represents the initial step to expose the role of epigenetic process, in the production of symptoms associated with plants-virus interactions. ER -