Hairpin RNA-mediated strategies for silencing of tomato leaf curl virus AC1 and AC4 genes for effective resistance in plants

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) using short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) has been widely explored for the suppression of intracellular viral target mRNAs. On the basis of our previous work with stable silencing of Tomato leaf curl virus, in vivo by the antisense replicase gene (AC1) of the virus and characterizing AC4, as a small RNA regulator, besides its role in pathogenicity, we used four different plasmid vector-based siRNA generation strategies to silence viral genes (AC1 and AC4) of tomato leaf curl viruses. The RNAi target sequence were chosen from DNA A of the Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV) on the basis of conserved regions in AC1 with an overlapping sequences of the AC4 gene. Different hairpin RNA-mediated strategies like antisense, self-complementary inverted repeats, intron-spliced hairpin RNAs, and small hairpin RNAs were deployed for efficient and predictable resistance to the viruses. Here we present that appropriately designed siRNAs not only prevents RNAi suppression but also help in developing trait-stable transgenics. These strategies imply that ToLCV rep-driven RNAi, targeting AC4 and conserved viral sequences, provides a promising approach to suppress a wide spectrum ToLCV infection in the tomato.