SERRATE, a miRNA biogenesis factor, affects viroid infection in Nicotiana benthamiana and Nicotiana tabacum

Abstract Viroids are plant infecting, non - coding RNA molecules of economic importance. Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), the type species of Pospiviroidae family, has been shown to be affected by specific RNA silencing pathways. Dicer like 1 (DCL1), a key player in micro RNA (miRNA) pathway has been previously linked with PSTVd infectivity. In this report we aim to further dissect the interaction between the miRNA pathway and Pospiviroid virulence. We mainly focused on the Zinc-finger protein SERRATE (SE) a co-factor of DCL1 and core component of miRNA pathway. We generated Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana benthamiana SE knock-down plants exhibiting considerable miRNA reduction and strong phenotypic abnormalities. PSTVd infection of SE suppressed plants resulted in a significant viroid reduction, especially at the initial infection stages. This positive correlation between SE levels and viroid infectivity underlines its role in PSTVd life cycle and reveals the importance of the miRNA pathway upon viroid infection.