RNAi silencing of rice black-streaked dwarf virus P10 and two insect vector genes to reduce virus transmission protects rice plants against RBSDV

Rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV) is a virus transmitted by Laodelphax striatellus (L. striatellus), which poses a serious threat to rice production. P10, a major outer capsid protein of RBSDV, which plays a key role in viral infection. In this study, two L. striatellus transmission-related proteins, novel cuticular protein (NCuP) and receptor for activated protein kinase C (RACK), were identified as interacting with P10. Results demonstrated that virus-induced NCuP and RACK were silenced using double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to reduce the quantity of virus in L. striatellus. The detection results after inoculation of RBSDV by L. striatellus showed that rice plants sprayed with dsP10+NCuP and dsP10+RACK and transgenic rice plants expressing both had higher disease resistance than those expressing dsP10, dsNCuP and dsRACK alone. Therefore, simultaneously interfering with both the expression of viral protein and the proteins that interact with them from insect vectors could enhance the control of viral transmission.