Viroid-like RNAs from cherry trees affected by leaf scorch disease: further data supporting their association with mycoviral double-stranded RNAs.

Cherry trees from Spain affected by cherry leaf scorch (CLS), a fungal disease proposed to be caused by Apiognomonia erythrostoma, show symptoms (translucent-chlorotic leaf spots evolving into rusty areas) very similar to those of cherry chlorotic rusty spot disease (CCRS) and Amasya cherry disease, reported in Italy and Turkey, respectively. The three maladies are closely associated with 10-12 double-stranded viral RNAs, and CCRS is additionally associated with two cherry small circular RNAs (cscRNA1 and cscRNA2). Here, we report that a small viroid-like RNA similar to the CCRS-associated cscRNA1 is also present in CLS-affected trees, thus extending the link between the two diseases. Both CLS and CCRS cscRNA1 elements have common features, including sequence identity (88 %), a predicted quasi rod-like conformation with short bifurcations at both termini, and the presence of hammerhead ribozymes in the strands of both polarities. However, cscRNA2, apparently derived from cscRNA1 by deletion of a short hairpin, was not detected in CLS-affected material. Although the biological nature of cscRNAs is unknown, the identification of at least cscRNA1 in different cherry cultivars and in two distinct geographic areas (Spain and Italy), always in close association with the same mycoviral dsRNAs, supports that these viroid-like RNAs could be satellite RNAs.