RNA-seq from CymRSV-infected shoot apical meristem region

Background: It has been observed in some plant-virus interaction under certain circumstances that the plants show a sign of healing from virus-infection, a phenomenon called symptom recovery. The nature of molecular processes behind symptom recovery has been an enigma in plant virology for a long time. Discovery of RNA silencing provided a possible mechanism to explain some aspects of recovery but not all.Results: We provide evidence that silencing is not the reason for recovery in CymRSV-infected Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Transcriptome analysis followed by in situ hybridization experiments shed light on the expressional changes in the shoot apical meristem (SAM) region upon virus infection. We observed a severe loss of meristem function in the SAM which was accompanied by the downregulation of meristem-specific genes. Among the upregulated genes we found an enrichment of salicylate-metabolism and signalling, and autophagy-related functions (among many others) suggesting that these genes might play a role in shoot necrosis and symptom recovery.Conclusion: Our data suggest that the loss of meristem function is a result of salicylate-induced programmed cell death.