Single‐cell transcriptome landscape elucidates the cellular and developmental responses to tomato chlorosis virus infection in tomato leaf

Plant viral diseases compromise the growth and yield of the crop globally, and they tend to be more serious under extreme temperatures and drought climate changes. Currently, regulatory dynamics during plant development and in response to virus infection at the plant cell level remain largely unknown. In this study, single‐cell RNA sequencing on 23 226 individual cells from healthy and tomato chlorosis virus‐infected leaves was established. The specific expression and epigenetic landscape of each cell type during the viral infection stage were depicted. Notably, the mesophyll cells showed a rapid function transition in virus‐infected leaves, which is consistent with the pathological changes such as thinner leaves and decreased chloroplast lamella in virus‐infected samples. Interestingly, the F‐box protein SKIP2 was identified to play a pivotal role in chlorophyll maintenance during virus infection in tomato plants. Knockout of the SlSKIP2 showed a greener leaf state before and after virus infection. Moreover, we further demonstrated that SlSKIP2 was located in the cytomembrane and nucleus and directly regulated by ERF4. In conclusion, with detailed insights into the plant responses to viral infections at the cellular level, our study provides a genetic framework and gene reference in plant–virus interaction and breeding in the future research. Summary statement The responses of different cell types in tomato leaves to tomato chlorosis virus (ToCV) infection were analyzed at the cellular level. We further determined that ERF4 regulates SlSKIP2, and the latter plays a crucial role in chlorophyll maintenance during ToCV infection in tomato leaves.