IN SILICO PREDICTION OF POTENTIAL miRNAs TO TARGET ZYMV IN CUCUMIS MELO

Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV) is the most important economically infected virus of the Cucurbitaceae family, as rigorous yield losses of up to 100% occur. Due to ZYMV the reduction occurs in the weight of fruit production and deficiency of shelf life of infected fruits. Infected plants are dwarf and have yellow mosaic-like symptoms. ZYMV is transmitted through infected seeds or by different aphid species through plant sap. For the prediction of melon-derived miRNA targets in the ZYMV genome, computational approaches were applied because miRNAs cooperate in the regulation of different cellular mechanisms. Target genes are negatively controlled by miRNA through post- transcriptionally, mRNA cleavage and translational inhibition. Different algorithms (miRanda, RNA22, psRNAtarget and tapirhybrid) were used for plant miRNA target prediction. Overall 120 mature miRNAs from mirBase were tested for ZYMV genome hybridization. Out of 120 miRNAs only 4 Cucumis melo miRNAs (cme-MIR396b, cme-MIR396c, cme-MIR396d (2) and cme-MIR319d) were predicted for ZYMV genome silencing. The genes of ZYMV those were targeted by these four miRNAs are PI, HC-Pro, P3, 6K1, CIP, Nia-VPg, Nia-Pro, NIB, and CP. The predicted miRNAs may be used to develop resistant ZYMV transgenic melon plants.