Virome Analysis in Saffron Plants

In 2022, leaves were collected from 1,000 saffron (Crocus sativus) plants from 11 provinces of Iran to study their virome. Viral particles were extracted from pooled samples (50 individuals per pool) using the VANA protocol. An alien external control was processed in parallel to monitor potential cross-contaminations between samples. The samples were then processed for high-throughput sequencing (HTS), individually tagged, and mixed in libraries. The library L-H-01 includes accessions H01-H11 multiplexed with tag/MID 1, 4, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 44, 54, 75, 78 and the library L-H-02 includes accessions H12-H22 multiplexed with tag/MID 1, 4, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 44, 54, 75, 78. In addition, the tag/MID for the alien external control in both libraries was 95.