Plant virus interaction mechanism and associated pathways in mosaic disease of small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton) by RNA-Seq approach

Abstract

Small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), grown in limited coastal tropical countries is one of the costliest and widely exported agri-produce having global turnover of>10 billion USD. Mosaic/marble disease is one of the major impediments that requires understanding of disease at molecular level. Neither whole genome sequence nor any genomic resources are available, thus RNA seq approach can be a rapid and economical alternative. De novo transcriptome assembly was done with Illumina Hiseq data. A total of 5317 DEGs, 2267 TFs, 114 pathways and 175,952 genic region putative markers were obtained. Gene regulatory network analysis deciphered molecular events involved in marble disease. This is the first transcriptomic report revealing disease mechanism mediated by perturbation in auxin homeostasis and ethylene signalling leading to senescence. The web-genomic resource (SCMVTDb) catalogues putative molecular markers, candidate genes and transcript information.SCMVTDb can be used in germplasm improvement against mosaic disease in endeavour of small cardamom productivity.