Tomato Aspermy Virus Elimination Improves Medicinal Quality Of Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. 'Huaihuang', a medicinal chrysanthemum of China, undergoes long-term asexual reproduction and virus infection that change its quality characteristics. Our previous studies have shown that tomato aspermy virus (TAV) is the main virus infecting 'Huaihuang'. Many studies indicate that plant virus elimination can improve plant growth, but only a few studies have focused on the effects of detoxification on the medicinal components of medicinal plants. In this paper, the content of medicinal components, including chlorogenic acid, luteoloside and 3,5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid, was compared between the TAV-free and TAV-infected (control) chrysanthemum. In addition, the reason why TAV elimination improves the medicinal components of chrysanthemum is explored. Our results suggest that TAV elimination significantly improves plant growth, enhances the enzyme activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, cinnamate-4-hydroxylase and 4-coumarate:CoA ligase, and increases the levels of CmHCT and CmCHS expression, thereby greatly improving the medicinal quality of chrysanthemum.