Venura Herath
Jeanmarie Verchot- 1Department of Agriculture Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
- 2Department of Plant Pathology & Microbiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States
Editorial on the Research Topic
Deciphering transcriptional dynamics in plant responses to viruses
The global burden of plant viruses is significantly affecting the world’s food production. The impact is more localized to the regions where there is a very high population density with limited access to resources. This situation is further worsened by the impact of global climate change (Savary et al., 2019). Combatting plant viral infections is considered one of the top priorities by plant breeders around the globe. Until recently most of the breeding efforts were restricted to mass screening of cultivars and incorporating virus-resistant traits into new cultivars and controlling the insect vectors using various pesticides. Conventional breeding approaches can take years to produce a commercially desirable crop variety while the same extended time creates an unfavorable situation given the viruses’ ability to rapidly evolve and overcome host genetic resistances. With the rapid advancement of next-generation sequencing technologies now both basic and applied plant researchers have the opportunity to explore the plant host responses and influence of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors at the transcriptomic level at a global scale (Zanardo et al., 2019). This greatly reduces the time required to decode the transcriptional regulatory networks involved. As a result, scientists can identify the major signal transduction hubs and manipulate their expression levels spatiotemporally to make virus-resistant plants.
Xie et al. are looking at wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV); one of the major diseases that affect wheat production globally. They were able to confirm that the Wsm2 locus is the major locus that controls the WSMV resistance in wheat. Then, they looked at the genetic variations in the locus and came up with potential candidate genes that can be used in future breeding programs.
The distribution and frequency of cis-regulatory elements on gene promoters can determine the spatiotemporal gene expression against virus attacks. Ke et al. are doing a deep dive into the regulation of Nicotiana bentamina argonautes 5(NbAGO5); a major gene that is involved in plant defense responses. They highlight the role of NbNAC42 and NbZF3 in the fine regulation of NbAGO5 mediated via the NbAGO5 promoter.
External environmental factors can greatly influence plant responses to viruses. Boron is known to enhance plant defense against viruses (Buoso et al.). Guo et al. show that the boron-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling pathways are responsible for the Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) resistance using N. benthamina and watermelon plant systems. Their results have a wide application in the fields where farmers can achieve virus resistance by modifying their agronomic practices.
Tan et al. demonstrate the functional characterization of UDP-Glycosyltransferases which are known for their antiviral properties. Their findings lay the groundwork for mass production of the UDP-Glycosyltransferases using novel synthetic biology approaches.
Author contributions
VH wrote the article; VH and JV have revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
Savary, S., Willocquet, L., Pethybridge, S. J., Esker, P., McRoberts, N., Nelson, A. (2019). The global burden of pathogens and pests on major food crops. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 430–439. doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0793-y
Keywords: viruses, cistrome, transcriptional regulatory network, plant immunity genes, plant virus interaction
Citation: Herath V and Verchot J (2023) Editorial: Deciphering transcriptional dynamics in plant responses to viruses. Front. Plant Sci. 14:1153747. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1153747
Received: 30 January 2023; Accepted: 06 February 2023;
Published: 10 February 2023.
Edited and Reviewed by:
Adi Avni, Tel Aviv University, IsraelCopyright © 2023 Herath and Verchot. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Venura Herath, venura@agri.pdn.ac.lk