Viral diseases of commercial plants are an extremely detrimental economic threat to food production. Due to the easy transmission and fast life cycles of viruses, they can account for up to 60% of yield losses. Beet Yellows Virus (BYV) is one of the most prominent examples of destructive pathogens, causing Virus Yellows disease that underlies up to 50% yield losses in root crops. BYV is a fast-growing threat: in 2019, the proportion of infected sugar beet fields in the UK increased substantially to 55% from 18% in 2018. Farmers saw yields halved because of virus yellows during 2020-21, prompting some farmers to stop growing the crop. British Sugar expects to process just 900,000t of sugar from the latest crop, compared with 1.19m tonnes the previous year. The most widely-used class of general pesticides in recent years has been neonicotinoids. However, these compounds were firstly banned within the EU due to its harmful effects on the environments in 2018. In January 2021, Defra approved an emergency temporary authorisation for the use of a neonicotinoid pesticide treatment on the 2022 sugar beet crop in England only due to the risk to the crop from yellows viruses, which could damage the UK’s sugar production. Our idea is to develop anti-viral small molecules based on the RNA structure features of sugar beet virus that will provide sugar beet growers with an environmentally-friendly, safe, reliable, efficient, sustainable and long-lasting protection against the virus.
We have developed a novel technology that is able to capture the RNA structure of any RNAs in living cells with both single-molecule and single-nucleotide resolutions (filed IPR). Using our novel single-molecule RNA structure profiling method, we have determined the in vivo RNA structure features of sugar beet virus (BYV) in living sugar beet plant cells Based on the RNA structure architecture of the sugar beet virus (BYV), we have designed small molecular inhibitors called “artificial small interfering RNAs” (art-siRNAs) that can specifically bind to and deactivate a target virus (IPR ongoing). Our designed artificial siRNAs could achieve ~95% silencing efficiency on the sugar beet mild yellow virus. We have also developed the art-siRNAs that multiple beet viruses at the same time such as beet mild yellow virus (BMYV) and BYV. Currently, our designed artificial siRNAs will be submitted to the TRL5-6 field trail in cooperation with British beet research organization (BBRO). Based on our determined viral RNA structures, we also identified over 20 small molecules that strongly bind our identified RNA structure elements. These small molecules will inhibit viral replication as another new type of anti-viral molecule (IPR ongoing). In summary, our innovation aims to develop anti-viral small molecules based on our identified RNA structure architecture of the sugar beet viruses that are environmentally-friendly, safe, reliable, efficient, sustainable and long-lasting protection against the virus.
