Identification of Three Viruses Infecting Mulberry Varieties

Abstract

Viruses-mediated genome editing in plants is a powerful strategy to develop plant cultivars with important and novel agricultural traits. Mulberry alba is an important economic tree species that has been cultivated in China for more than 5000 years. So far, only a few viruses have been identified from mulberry trees, and their application potential is largely unknown. Therefore, mining more virus resources from the mulberry tree can pave the way for the establishment of useful engineering tools. In this study, eight old mulberry plants were gathered in seven geographic areas for virome analysis. Based on transcriptome analysis, we discovered three viruses associated with mulberries: Citrus leaf blotch virus isolate mulberry alba 2 (CLBV-ML2), Mulberry-associated virga-like virus (MaVLV), and Mulberry-associated narna-like virus (MaNLV). The genome of CLBV-ML2 was completely sequenced and exhibited high homology with Citriviruses, considered to be members of the genus Citrivirus, while the genomes of MaVLV and MaNLV were nearly completed lacking the 5′ and 3′ termini sequences. We tentatively consider MaVLV to be members of the family Virgaviridae and MaNLV to be members of the genus Narnavirus based on the results of phylogenetic trees. The infection experiments showed that CLBV-ML2 could be detected in the inoculated seedlings of both N. benthamiana and Morus alba, while MaVLV could only be detected in N. benthamiana. All of the infected seedlings did not show obvious symptoms.

Identification and Characterization of a Novel Quanzhou Mulberry Virus from Mulberry (Morus alba)

“…Mulberry badnavirus 1 (MBV1) [ 11 ] affects both leaf and fruit development. In contrast, there are also some viruses present in mulberry trees that do not cause significant damage due to their low pathogenic ability and low accumulation, such as Citrus leaf blotch virus isolate mulberry alba 2 (CLBV-ML2) and Mulberry-associated virga-like virus (MaVLV) [ 12 ]. It is still essential to identify and characterize these viruses to better understand their potential impact on the crop.…”

“…In the case of mulberry trees, their unique features make them valuable for identifying and characterizing new viruses, and old mulberry trees are particularly significant for this purpose due to their longevity. In our previous studies, transcriptome sequencing technology was utilized to identify three viruses from eight old mulberry trees [ 12 ]. Therefore, we employed the same technology to analyze a sample collected from an ancient mulberry tree over 1300 years old located at Fujian Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.…”