How viroids became part of my research?

It’s been an exciting start to my career, and I’m already amazed at where this journey might take me. With viroids, it’s never boring.

Through a series of unexpected events, I connected with Prof. Javornik and, under her guidance, started my doctoral studies, focusing on the interactions between Verticillium and hops. Like every PhD, it was a love-hate relationship with my research topic. Over four years, I realized that proteins and I simply weren’t meant to get along, but I also grew a deep passion for research and discovered unexpected joy in teaching at the university. I knew I wanted to stay in academia, but I needed a new direction.
 

Enter viroids—protein-free RNA molecules that perfectly suit my protein aversion !

With the invaluable mentorship of Prof. Jakše, I shifted focus and landed my first postdoctoral project on the interaction between CBCVd and hops. It’s been an exciting start to my career, and I’m already amazed at where this journey might take me. In recent years we were surprised to find viroid-like molecules outside the plant kingdom1-5. What other secrets are these tiny RNA rebels hiding?
 
It’s incredible how such tiny RNA molecules can have such powerful effects. I keep asking myself: Why does CBCVd cause no symptoms in oranges, but hops infected with it die after just a few years? And why does HLVd leave hops untouched but completely destroy hemp? What are the molecular mechanisms behind these interactions, and how can we use this knowledge to stop viroids from spreading?
Can infected plants even be treated? Will we ever find effective phytosanitary solutions? These are just some of the questions I hope to explore in the EU project ViroiDoc, which is starting soon. I’m so excited to begin this new chapter and see what discoveries lie ahead—because with viroids, it’s never boring!
 
Helena Volk, PhD, is a teaching assistant the University of Ljubljana – Biotechnology, Department of Agronomy, Chair of Genetics, Biotechnology, Statistics and Plant Breeding

1. Sun, L., & Hadidi, A. (2022). Mycoviroids: Fungi as hosts and vectors of viroids. Cells, 11(8), 1335. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11081335
2. Dong, K., Xu, C., Kotta-Loizou, I., Jiang, J., Lv, R., Kong, L., Li, S., Hong, N., Wang, G., Coutts, R. H. A., & Xu, W. (2023). Novel viroid-like RNAs naturally infect a filamentous fungus. Advanced Science, 10(3), e2204308. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202204308
3. Forgia, M., Navarro, B., Daghino, S., Cervera, A., Gisel, A., Perotto, S., Aghayeva, D. N., Akinyuwa, M. F., Gobbi, E., Zheludev, I. N., Edgar, R. C., Chikhi, R., Turina, M., Babaian, A., Di Serio, F., & de la Peña, M. (2023). Hybrids of RNA viruses and viroid-like elements replicate in fungi. Nature
4. Zheludev, I. N., Edgar, R. C., Lopez-Galiano, M. J., de la Peña, M., Babaian, A., Bhatt, A. S., & Fire, A. Z. (2024). Viroid-like colonists of human microbiomes. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.20.576352