One RNA spray shields zucchini from aphid-spread virus for weeks
Liang J, Fletcher SJ, Manzie N, Mitter N, Robinson KE.
Crop Improvement
If you grow squash or zucchini in your garden, aphids carrying zucchini yellow mosaic virus can wipe out your plants almost overnight, and this spray-on treatment could someday replace insecticides as your defense.
Scientists sprayed zucchini plants with a lab-made RNA solution designed to jam the instructions a specific virus needs to infect the plant. When aphids carrying the virus later fed on the sprayed plants, infection rates dropped by as much as 93%, and protection lasted up to 10 to 15 days from a single spray. It's an early sign that farmers and gardeners might one day protect crops from viruses without spraying chemical pesticides on the aphids that carry them.
Key Findings
A 300 ng/µL dsRNA spray cut mechanically-inoculated infection rates by 73-100% for up to 15 days post-treatment, but not at 20 days.
A higher 600 ng/µL dose reduced infection from aphid-transmitted virus by about 93% when aphids were introduced 5 days after spraying, dropping to 75% protection at day 10, and no significant protection by day 15.
The dsRNA translocated through and persisted in treated plants, directly impairing the virus's ability to establish infection.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Spraying a special RNA solution on zucchini plants blocked a common virus from taking hold, even when the virus was delivered by aphids, offering a pesticide-free way to protect crops for up to two weeks per treatment.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Spray application of dsRNA reduces aphid transmitted ZYMV infection in Cucurbita pepo.
Exogenous application of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) for protection against plant viruses has been demonstrated in a range of pathosystems. Here, we demonstrate the protective efficacy of spray-ind...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Zucchini, courgette, or Cucurbita pepo var. cylindrica is a summer squash, a vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are still soft and edible. It is closely related, but not identical, to the marrow; its fruit may be called marrow when mature.