Small RNA profiling of aster yellows infected Catharanthus roseus plants

Aster yellows phytoplasma strain Hyd35 (16SrI-B) in micropropagated periwinkle shoots in collection was used to produce infected plants in pots that were separated according to the diverse symptomatology i.e. phyllody and witches' broom. Small RNA high-throughput sequencing (HTS) was then used to determine the small RNA pattern of these plants. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of expression changes of different miRNA classes and the presence of phytoplasma derived small RNAs. These results could complement previous studies and serve as a starting point for small RNA omics in phytoplasma research Overall design: Potted cuttings from one micropropagated clone of C. roseus infected with aster yellows phytoplasma(strain Hyd35, 16SrI-B) were sampled. RNA was extracted from six plants showing different phenotypes: three showing phyllody, three showing witches' broom and three asymptomatic plants. Small RNA libraries were prepared from these 9 plants