Altered cell shapes, hyperplasia, and secondary growth in Arabidopsis caused by beet curly top geminivirus infection.

Arabidopsis Sei-O ecotype was found to be hypersusceptible to the BCTV-Logan strain in that it developed very severe symptoms, including severely deformed inflorescences with the callus-like structure, and accumulated high level of viral DNA. Microscopic studies of the BCTV-induced cell divisions demonstrated that the activation of cell divisions was preceded by the phloem disruption and the callus-like structure seemed to be originated from the cortex nearby disrupted phloem. We have further defined the callus-like structure formed by BCTV infection using molecular and histochemical analyses.