Abstract
Rockmelon is a popular tropical fruit with high nutritional value. Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), an aphid-transmitted virus, causes severe damage to rockmelon production. Exogenous application of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) targeting viral sequences has shown promising results in controlling viral infection but has not been reported for CMV in rockmelon. In the current study, the protective effect of exogenous dsRNAs targeting the CMV coat protein (CP) and movement protein (MP) was tested in rockmelon. The effectiveness of dsRNA-mediated protection was measured by disease severity index (DSI) and compound enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The individual dsRNA CP and MP treatments each showed protection by reducing the DSI and virus titre, whilst a combination of dsRNA of CP and MP treatment showed much lower DSI (4.31-fold lower) and virus titre (4.91-fold lower) compared to CMV-inoculated plants without dsRNA treatment. Chlorophyll content, relative water content, plant height and number of leaves were not significantly different between virus challenged dsRNA-treated and mock-inoculated plants. Based on the DSI, two applications containing 9000 ng of dsRNA CP and MP in combination showed maximum CMV protection. Taken together, these results indicate that exogenous treatment containing a combination of dsRNA of CP and MP can control CMV infection in rockmelon.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to show our gratitude to Green World Genetics Sdn. Bhd. for contribution of rockmelon seeds.
Funding
This research has been supported by the project “MRUN: Safety of genetically modified organisms for sustainable agriculture and food” Grant no LR002-2019 (Kod Projek UPM/800–4/11/MRUN/2019/5539150 (UPM)) from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by DK, PM, TBC, JAH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by DK and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kethiravan, D., Mazumdar, P., Tan, B.C. et al. Control of cucumber mosaic virus in rockmelon using dsRNA-mediated silencing of coat protein and movement protein genes with no deleterious effect on plant phenotype. J Plant Dis Prot (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41348-024-00913-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41348-024-00913-1