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AcronymRCA Genomics
  
TitleInternational reference centre for the genomics and diagnosis of viruses with small circular DNA
  
Duration1 April 2007 - 1 April 2010
  
Project leader Holger Jeske, University of Stuttgart, Germany
  

Project partners

Bruno Gronenborg, CNRS Plant Science Institute ISV, France
Susanne Ullmann, Qiagen GmbH, Germany
Rafael E. Bejarano, University of Malaga, Spain

   
FundingFrance National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)
 GermanyResearch Centre Juelich – Project Management Juelich (FZJ-PTO) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
 Spain Ministry for Education and Science (MEC) 
  
  Total granted budget€ 1,031,039
  
Abstract 

A collaborative research project uniting participants of Universität Stuttgart, CNRS Gif, Universidad Malaga and Qiagen, Hilden is proposed to utilize the innovative power of rolling circle amplication (RCA) for diagnosis and genomics of viruses with small circular DNA, like geminiviruses and nanoviruses as well as satellite DNAs. Procedures and materials will be developed that allow the centralized analysis of infected plant samples from all over the world, with emphazisis on subtropical and tropical countries. A reference database will be established for plant protection measurements as open access. For functional genomics, RCA-based techniques will be developed to identify relevant genes in the interaction of viruses and hosts, with the primary goal to select or engineer virus resistance. The project is intended to provide added value to crop sustainablity of tomato, cotton, beet and cassava among others.

 
Progress
Hundreds of geminivirus-infected leaf samples have been collected from Brasil, Bolivia, Cuba, Germany, Iran as well as from the virus stock of the Institute of Biology in Stuttgart. The plants included various wild species, sweet potatoes, barley, cassava, tomato, and sugar beet in order to test a broad spectrum of plant material for efficient RCA and RFLP. A high throughput cloning of the geminiviral DNAs has been established and sequencing has been considerably accelerated. The resultant protocols will be demonstrated during an RCA Summer School in Stuttgart (July 28th –August 8th) which has been prepared for PhD students and advanced scientists involved in plant protection from all over the world. A new vector system for virus-induced gene silencing has been developed which has been proven to be a versatile tool in functional genomics.
 Figure 1 Geminivirus-infected leaf
 
Project website

http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/bio/bioinst/molbio/

 
Output from the project (publications, patents, data resources, etcetera)

Publications
Homs, M., Kober, S., Kepp, G., and Jeske, H. (2008). Mitochondrial plasmids of sugar beet amplified via rolling circle method detected during curtovirus screening. Virus Res. 136, 124-129.

Jeske, H. (2008). Geminiviruses. In "Torque Teno Virus, Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology" (H. zur Hausen, de Villiers, E.-M., Ed.), pp. in press. Springer, Berlin.

Krenz, B., Wege, C., and Jeske, H. (2008). Abutilon mosaic virus as a stable and attenuated vector for virus-induced gene silencing and limited phloem-specific protein expression. Plant Mol. Biol. in revision.