The experimental system used is made of tomato plants and Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). TSWV is a virus extremely widespread, capable of infecting hundreds of plant species, including the tomato. Tomato is a species of economic interest and species-model for the Solanaceae, with a project of international genome sequencing actually in progress. The research aims at a better understanding of the interaction between tomato and TSWV, or the plant response to infection with TSWV: to attain this task we used a transcriptomic approach (microarrays).
The study at the molecular level of plant-virus interactions, in the early stages of the infection, is currently one of the most interesting areas of research in virology and is an important support to the creation of var ieties resistant or tolerant to viruses. New molecular tools, such as recombinant DNA technology and isolation of resistance genes in the plant achieved in the last 10 years, have provided basic knowledge about the role of specific sequences in the viral infection process and the responses of the plant. Advanced tools for analysis of gene expression (eg. Microarrays and mRNA seq) are currently available and are applied to the identification of genes involved in various biological processes, including plant-pathogen interactions.
These studies highlight the existence of groups of transcripts modulated in a specific manner as well as functions commonly altered at the transcriptional level by infection with different viruses or other pathogens of plants.