22BBSRC-NSF/BIO: Deciphering the RNA structure code for viroid infections

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Viruses constantly threaten humans, livestock, and crops. Many viruses have RNA genomes. In the most extreme case, noncoding RNAs alone (i.e., viroids) can infect crops leading to production losses. Taking oil palm and coconut palm as an example, ~40 million palms were killed by viroids between 1980 to 2007 due to the lack of effective treatments. Additionally, varying temperatures can affect viroid titre and symptom severity. Warm temperatures lead to more severe foliage symptoms and significant potato yield loss by viroid infection. It has been projected that climate change increases cross-species viral transmission risks and poses risks of new viroid and virus outbreaks. Therefore, it is timely to explore potential solutions for informing sustainable agriculture in the future.This proposal builds on recent breakthroughs in both UK and US groups and aims to transform the current knowledge on viroid RNA structure architecture. This proposal will develop advanced methods to decipher both spatial and temporal RNA structure landscapes of viroids in living plant cells. Then we will assess the functional importance of these RNA structure features in viroid infection. We will deliver novel RNA structure-mediated regulation of viroid infection, offering new knowledge for combating viroid disease to ultimately lay a solid foundation for future screening of anti-viroid drugs. The fundamental knowledge of structure-mediated intracellular and intercellular viroid transmission will provide a general understanding of RNA movement and host-virus interactions. This proposed research will establish a series of advanced novel methods where these methods could be applied to other organisms. The novel framework generated from this proposed research will be readily applicable in studying other plant or animal viral RNAs.