Virus-Induced Silencing of a Sequence Coding for Loricrin-like Protein in Phytophthora infestans upon Infection of a Recombinant Vector Based on Tobacco Mosaic Virus

Phytophthora infestans is the oomycete responsible for late blight disease of Solanaceae that causes both yield and economic losses. With aim reducing plant wilt high management costs mainly due to wide fungicide applications, alternative eco-sustainable control strategies are needed. RNA interference (RNAi) a powerful tool gene function studies can be accomplished by constitutive transformation or transient expression such as virus-induced silencing (VIGS) experiments. VIGS makes use viruses deliver sequences homologous target fragment trigger RNAi. Indeed, P. ortholog loricrin-like protein (LLP), named PiLLP, has been silenced using direct infection recombinant vector based on virus tobacco mosaic (TMV-PiLLP-1056), aiming reduce sexual reproduction. For this purpose, coding green fluorescent (GFP) present in TMV-GFP-1056 replaced with an antisense construct obtained fusion PCR PiLLP 5′-UTR 3′-UTR sequences. Here, we show RNAi expressed A1 mating type strain 96.9.5.1 TMV-PiLLP-1056. We provide evidence enter, replicate, persist mycelia where it induces partial downregulation transcript. Compared wild-type, PiLLP-silenced had slower colony growth diminished virulence detached tomato leaflets. This seems first plus-sense virus.