Project description:The cacao swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) is among the most economically damaging diseases of cacao trees and accounts for almost 15-50% of harvest losses in Ghana. This virus is transmitted by several species of mealybugs (Pseudococcidae, Homoptera) when they feed on cacao plants. One of the mitigation strategies for CSSVD investigated at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) is the use of mild-strain cross-protection of cacao trees against the effects of severe strains. In this study, simple deterministic, delay, and stochastic ordinary differential equation-based models to describe the dynamic of the disease and spread of the virus are suggested. Model parameters are estimated using detailed empirical data from CRIG. The modeling outcomes demonstrate a remarkable resemblance between real and simulated dynamics. We have found that models with delay approximate the data better and this agrees with the knowledge that CSSVD epidemics develop slowly. Also, since there are large variations in the data, stochastic models lead to better results. We show that these models can be used to gain useful informative insights about the nature of disease spread.
Project description:Cacao (Theobroma cacao) is a highly valuable crop with growing demands in the global market. However, cacao farmers often face challenges posed by black pod disease caused by Phytophthora spp. with P. palmivora as the most dominant. Regulations of various gene expression influence plant resistance to pathogens. One mechanism involves targeting mRNA of virulence genes in the invading pathogens, suppressing their infection. However, resistance also could be suppressed by plant-derived miRNAs that target their own defense genes. The objective of this study is to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in black pod resistant and susceptible Cacao varieties and to predict their targets in T. cacao and P. palmivora transcripts. In our research, 54 known miRNAs from 40 miRNA families and 67 Novel miRNAs were identified. As much as 17 miRNAs were differentially expressed in susceptible variety compared to resistant one, with 9 miRNAs were upregulated and 8 miRNAs downregulated. In T. cacao transcripts, the upregulated miRNAs were predicted to target several genes, including defense genes. The suppression of these defense genes can lead to a reduction in plant resistance against pathogen infection. While in P. palmivora transcripts, the upregulated miRNAs were predicted to target several genes, including P. palmivora effector genes and other important metabolism activities genes. In the future, limiting expression of miRNAs that target T. cacao's defense genes and applying miRNAs that target P. palmivora effector genes hold promise for enhancing cacao plant resistance against P. palmivora infection.
Project description:Cacao, spinach and carrot are three important crops with high valuable markets. For these species there isn't already an available genome-wide annotation of small rna. Here, for the first time, we sequenced and annotated small RNAs.
Project description:Moniliophthora perniciosa is the causal agent of cacao Witche´s broom disease. This disease has been causing extensive damages to Brazilian cacao plantation, especially in Southern Bahia. Using glass slides microarrays, we analyzed the expression profile of 3872 whole genome shotgun reads from M. perniciosa genome, comparing two stages of development (Biotrophic-like mycelia and saprotrophic mycelia). Keywords: Moniliophthora perniciosa, Witches Broom Disease, Pathogenesis, Cacao
Project description:Moniliophthora perniciosa is the causal agent of cacao Witche´s broom disease. This disease has been causing extensive damages to Brazilian cacao plantation, especially in Southern Bahia. Using glass slides microarrays, we analyzed the expression profile of 3872 whole genome shotgun reads from M. perniciosa genome, comparing two stages of development (Biotrophic-like mycelia and saprotrophic mycelia). Keywords: Moniliophthora perniciosa, Witches Broom Disease, Pathogenesis, Cacao
Project description:integration of metabolomics and proteomics for understanding the molecular physiology of cacao seed development. Both the metabolomic and proteomic profiles of 4 developing stages' cacao seed were obtained from the mass spectrometry based platforms.