VIPER-seq: Protein-mediated small RNA enrichment enhances plant virus detection at low viral abundance

VIPER-seq enriches virus-derived small RNAs from cucumber seeds infected with cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV), substantially improving detection versus conventional sRNA-seq.

• Why it matters: Early, accurate plant virus detection is critical, but sRNA-seq sensitivity can drop in low-titre infections because abundant endogenous small RNAs dilute the viral signal.
• What they did: The method uses sRNA-binding proteins to enrich vsiRNAs before high-throughput sequencing, and it was tested on CGMMV-infected cucumber seeds.
• The result: VIPER-seq shows particularly evident sensitivity gains under low-titre conditions, supporting earlier detection for seed health testing and biosecurity surveillance.