PELOTA
at the crossroads of tomato fertility and viral resistance
Zeenu Singh, Tali Sufrin Ringwald, Yardena Dahan, Dana Gelbart, Srinivas Kunta, Ben Avni, Haggai Wasserstrom, Vitaly Citovsky, Moshe Lapidot, Yogev Burko Summary
Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is a major threat to tomato (
Solanum lycopersicum
) production, and durable resistance remains challenging to achieve.
We show that complete loss of function of
PELOTA
(
PELO
), a conserved ribosome surveillance factor underlying the resistance allele
ty‐5
, confers near‐immunity to TYLCV.
Unexpectedly, PELO is also required for reproductive development;
pelo
mutants display severe floral defects, impaired male and female fertility, and complete sterility, revealing a previously unknown role for PELO in tomato plant fertility.
Using CRISPR‐mediated promoter editing, we generated novel
PELO
alleles with reduced expression that maintain fertility while conferring enhanced resistance to TYLCV, providing a new strategy.