Transcriptomics of plant-virus interactions: a review

Posing as one of the major threats for a wide range of plant species, viruses are responsible for huge losses in crop production around the world. The design of new efficient molecular strategies aiming plant resistance requires a holistic view of the complex mechanisms underlying the plant-virus interactions, as well as the discovery of all virus-associated functional components involved in disease. Most of plant viruses present RNA genomes, which aspects of structural diversity and function are frequently difficult to be described using classical molecular biology approaches. As a promising alternative, the advancing field of transcriptomics has shadedlight on the understanding of a plethora of plant-virus interactions, in model and crop plants. The advent of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and its several variants, such as sRNA-seq and Degradome-seq, has brought the study of plant-virus interactions in a new age. Previously unknown players acting during virus infections are now structurally and functionally described. In this review, we focus on the advances of plant-virus interactions study promoted by the expanding field of transcriptomics. We present an overview of state-of-art of the plant-virus interactions study, regarding important aspects of plant physiology and virology, following by a succinct description of the main transcriptomic approaches used in this field. A detailed description of the use of transcriptomic approaches for some of main plant virus genres during host-interactions is also presented. Finally, we bring concluding remarks discussing the importance of transcriptomics in the study of plant viral diseases, and the future prospects of new approaches in transcriptomics with potential of use in plant-virus interaction studies.