A future where chocolate, wine and oranges can be afforded only by the wealthy certainly feels dystopian. But it could be a reality if some of our favorite crops succumb to plant diseases — a reality that is already taking shape in some parts of the world. To tackle the problem, Anne Elizabeth Simon, a virologist at the University of Maryland, is attempting to create what she calls a "vaccine" for crops that could protect our food supply.

Like the current approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have long dealt with pathogen spread among plants by quarantining infected flora to spare surrounding ones. And, depending on the type of disease, plants may also receive pesticides or antibiotic sprays.

But to offer more reliable protection, Simon is part of a team developing a vaccine-like solution as an efficient and relatively quickly deployable solution to preempt — or possibly cure — plant diseases.

Simon joined the fight against plant pathogens by chance: While studying plant RNA viruses in her lab, she happened upon a surprising sample in a genetic sequence database that contradicted her 30 years of research.

It turned out to be a new type of virus-like RNA that she named iRNA. It shocked Simon because iRNA lacks certain genes found in all normal plant viruses, yet can still move between cells in a plant’s veins by attaching to plant-generated movement proteins.

By tweaking the iRNA to carry tiny fragments of a virus, it can provoke plant enzymes to chop up the harmful virus into little pieces, without causing damage to the plant. “This can be a vehicle, not just for one type of tree, but for many,” Simon says. “It’s all because of this very unusual, never-before-seen property.”

The iRNA sample was first discovered by University of California, Riverside researchers in the 1950s when it appeared in limequat trees. They found that the iRNA can infect many citrus species with very mild to zero symptoms. Yet its disease-eradicating properties were only recently discovered when Simon identified the missing genes that allow it to move through plant veins.

“This could become one of the important tools in the belt of the industry and farmers to keep citrus going,” says Georgios Vidalakis, a plant pathologist at the University of California, Riverside, and director of the Citrus Clonal Protection Program. “It looks very promising. Still, there is a lot of work to be done."

 Source: Discover Magazine

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