Sensitive detection of Plantago asiatica mosaic virus infection in Arabidopsis thaliana based on shifts in carotenoid resonance Raman bands

• This study presents a sensitive detection of PlAMV infection in Arabidopsis plants • We found subtle shifts in carotenoid resonance Raman bands of PlAMV infected plants • Spectral shift emerged even before the infection was detected by ELISA • Shifted carotenoid components depicted infection dynamics with enhanced sensitivity To improve the efficiency of plant virus disease management, novel strategy for early and sensitive detection of viral infection is essential. Raman spectroscopy (RS) which can provide specific signatures based on molecular vibrations from virus-infected plant tissue has recently attracted attention. In this study, we demonstrate that resonance Raman spectroscopy of carotenoids can be utilized to monitor the progression of Plantago asiatica mosaic virus (PlAMV) infection in Arabidopsis thaliana with enhanced sensitivity. We observed unidirectional shifts of approximately 1 cm −1 in ν 1 , ν 2 and ν 3 bands of carotenoids in the PlAMV infected plants compared with healthy plants. These spectral shifts in carotenoid bands are essentially associated to PlAMV infection as shown by a serological detection method ELISA. Intriguingly, such shifts in carotenoid bands emerged even before the infection was detected by ELISA, which emphasize the ability of resonance Raman spectroscopy for early detection of PlAMV infection. These subtle shifts in carotenoids bands for PlAMV infected plants can be correlated to alteration in carotenoid-lipid interactions, photosynthetic activities and redox status as revealed by transcriptomic analysis. Overall, the spectrally-shifted components of carotenoid bands allowed us to depict the progression of PlAMV infection in Arabidopsis thaliana with enhanced sensitivity.