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Viroids are small (246-401 nucleotides), single-stranded, circular RNA molecules that infect several crop plants and can cause diseases of economic importance. Citrus are the hosts in which the largest number of viroids have been identified. Citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd), the causal agent of citrus exocortis disease, induces considerable losses in citrus crops. Changes in the gene expression profile during the early (pre-symptomatic) and late (post-symptomatic) stages of Etrog citron infected with CEVd were investigated using a citrus cDNA microarray. MaSigPro analysis was performed and, on the basis of gene expression profiles as a function of the time after infection, the differentially expressed genes were classified into five clusters. FatiScan analysis revealed significant enrichment of functional categories for each cluster, indicating that viroid infection triggers important changes in chloroplast, cell wall, peroxidase and symporter activities., (© 2012 THE AUTHORS. MOLECULAR PLANT PATHOLOGY © 2012 BSPP AND BLACKWELL PUBLISHING LTD.)

Brittle leaf disease or maladie des feuilles cassantes (MFC) is a disorder affecting date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) which after a long declining process eventually leads to the death of the plant. No causal agent for the disease has been found so far but leaflets of affected palms are Mn-deficient despite the existence of adequate exchangeable Mn in the soils in which affected palms grow. The disease is specifically associated with an increase in a series of chloroplastic RNAs. A proteomic analysis of leaflets of affected and unaffected date palms showed differences in quantities of several proteins. Mn-binding PSBO and PSBP proteins, components of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II, were decreased in affected tissue, reinforcing the relation between MFC and Mn deficiency. The quantities of other proteins were increased by disease suggesting a response to stress., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)