Unravelling the trans-kingdom function of Sstrf2, tRNA-derived small RNA of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

In Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, white mold fungus, tRNA-derived small RNAs (tRFs) potentially belong to a new class of virulence effector because we previously reported two very abundant of larger size at 28-30 nt. In this study, we show that the tRFs have no fungal targets predicted based on transcriptome, degradome and small RNA-Seq of S. sclerotiorum. The tRFs function in a trans-kingdom manner was also evidenced by immunoprecipitation of argonaute protein 1 (Ago1) profiled by small RNA-Seq, as well as A. thaliana ago1 knockout mutant is more tolerant to DK3 inoculation.