Orthotospoviruses, the plant-infecting bunyaviruses, cause serious diseases in agronomic crops and pose major threats to global food security. The family of contains more than 30 members that are classified into two geographic groups, American-type and Euro/Asian-type orthotospovirus. However, the genetic interaction between different species and the possibility, during mixed infections, for transcomplementation of gene functions by orthotospoviruses from different geographic groups remains underexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe family of consists of more than 500 circular single-stranded (ss) DNA viral species that can infect numerous dicot and monocot plants. Geminiviruses replicate their genome in the nucleus of a plant cell, taking advantage of the host's DNA replication machinery. For converting their DNA into double-stranded DNA, and subsequent replication, these viruses rely on host DNA polymerases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall RNAs (sRNAs) are the hallmark and main effectors of RNA silencing and therefore are involved in major biological processes in plants, such as regulation of gene expression, antiviral defense, and plant genome integrity. The mechanisms of sRNA amplification as well as their mobile nature and rapid generation suggest sRNAs as potential key modulators of intercellular and interspecies communication in plant-pathogen-pest interactions. Plant endogenous sRNAs can act in cis to regulate plant innate immunity against pathogens, or in trans to silence pathogens' messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and impair virulence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant disease immunity heavily depends on the recognition of plant pathogens and the subsequent activation of downstream immune pathways. Nod-like receptors are often crucial in this process. , a Nod-like resistance gene from conferring resistance against Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), belongs to the small group of Nod-like receptors with unusually large LRR domains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMost cytoplasmic-replicating negative-strand RNA viruses (NSVs) initiate genome transcription by cap snatching. The source of host mRNAs from which the cytoplasmic NSVs snatch capped-RNA leader sequences has remained elusive. Earlier reports have pointed towards cytoplasmic-RNA processing bodies (P body, PB), although several questions have remained unsolved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCap-snatching is a mechanism applied by segmented, negative strand (-) RNA viruses (NSVs) to initiate genome transcription. So far, the cap donor source of cytoplasmic-replicating NSVs has remained elusive. Recently, studies pointed to processing body (P body, PB) as the potential source for providing capped RNAs but conclusive evidence is still lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA cucumber mosaic virus isolate, named Ho [CMV(Ho)], was isolated from a symptomless field sample containing low virus titers. An analysis of CMV(Ho) RNA molecules indicated that the virus isolate, besides the usual cucumovirus tripartite RNA genome, additionally contained defective RNA3 molecules and a satellite RNA. To study the underlying mechanism of the persistent CMV(Ho) infection in perennial , infectious cDNA clones were generated for all its genetic elements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFpresents an atypical dominant resistance gene that codes for an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR) of the gamma class and confers resistance to tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and other geminiviruses. Tomato lines bearing not only produce relatively higher amounts of viral small interfering (vsi)RNAs, but viral DNA also exhibits a higher amount of cytosine methylation. Whether Ty-1 specifically enhances posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS), leading to a degradation of RNA target molecules and primarily relying on 21-22 nucleotides (nts) siRNAs, and/or transcriptional gene silencing (TGS), leading to the methylation of cytosines within DNA target sequences and relying on 24-nts siRNAs, was unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntiviral RNA silencing/interference (RNAi) of negative-strand (-) RNA plant viruses (NSVs) has been studied less than for single-stranded, positive-sense (+)RNA plant viruses. From the latter, genomic and subgenomic mRNA molecules are targeted by RNAi. However, genomic RNA strands from plant NSVs are generally wrapped tightly within viral nucleocapsid (N) protein to form ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), the core unit for viral replication, transcription and movement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBesides being considered pathogens, viruses are important drivers of evolution and they can shape large ecological and biogeochemical processes, by influencing host fitness, population dynamics, and community structures. Moreover, they are simple systems that can be used and manipulated to be beneficial and useful for biotechnological applications. In this context, microalgae biotechnology is a growing field of research, which investigated the usage of photosynthetic microorganisms for the sustainable production of food, fuel, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNegative-strand (-) RNA viruses (NSVs) comprise a large and diverse group of viruses that are generally divided in those with non-segmented and those with segmented genomes. Whereas most NSVs infect animals and humans, the smaller group of the plant-infecting counterparts is expanding, with many causing devastating diseases worldwide, affecting a large number of major bulk and high-value food crops. In 2018, the taxonomy of segmented NSVs faced a major reorganization with the establishment of the order .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn contrast to most Burkholderia species, which affect humans or animals, Burkholderia glumae is a bacterial pathogen of plants that causes panicle blight disease in rice seedlings, resulting in serious damage to rice cultivation. Attempts to combat this disease would benefit from research involving a phage known to attack this type of bacterium. Some Burkholderia phages have been isolated from soil or bacterial species in the order Burkholderiales, but so far there has been no report of a complete genome nucleotide sequence of a phage of B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCombining plant resistance against virus and vector presents an attractive approach to reduce virus transmission and virus proliferation in crops. () genes confer resistance to potyviruses by limiting their long-distance transport. Recently, a close homologue of one of the genes, , has been discovered but this gene instead confers resistance to aphids, a vector of potyviruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2020
Negative-stranded/ambisense RNA viruses (NSVs) include not only dangerous pathogens of medical importance but also serious plant pathogens of agronomic importance. Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is one of the most important plant NSVs, infecting more than 1,000 plant species, and poses major threats to global food security. The segmented negative-stranded/ambisense RNA genomes of TSWV, however, have been a major obstacle to molecular genetic manipulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant viruses are thought to be essentially harmful to the lives of their cultivated crop hosts. In most cases studied, the interaction between viruses and cultivated crop plants negatively affects host morphology and physiology, thereby resulting in disease. Native wild/non-cultivated plants are often latently infected with viruses without any clear symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrequencies of CpG and UpA dinucleotides in most plant RNA virus genomes show degrees of suppression comparable to those of vertebrate RNA viruses. While pathways that target CpG and UpAs in HIV-1 and echovirus 7 genomes and restrict their replication have been partly characterised, whether an analogous process drives dinucleotide underrepresentation in plant viruses remains undetermined. We examined replication phenotypes of compositionally modified mutants of potato virus Y (PVY) in which CpG or UpA frequencies were maximised in non-structural genes (including helicase and polymerase encoding domains) while retaining protein coding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a begomovirus, causes large yield losses and breeding for resistance is an effective way to combat this viral disease. The resistance gene Ty-1 codes for an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and has recently been shown to enhance transcriptional gene silencing of TYLCV. Whereas Ty-1 was earlier shown to also confer resistance to a bipartite begomovirus, here it is shown that Ty-1 is probably generic to all geminiviruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRNA granules are dynamic cellular foci that are widely spread in eukaryotic cells and play essential roles in cell growth and development, and immune and stress responses. Different types of granules can be distinguished, each with a specific function and playing a role in, for example, RNA transcription, modification, processing, decay, translation, and arrest. By means of communication and exchange of (shared) components, they form a large regulatory network in cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant molecular pharming has emerged as a reliable platform for recombinant protein expression providing a safe and low-cost alternative to bacterial and mammalian cells-based systems. Simultaneously, plant viruses have evolved from pathogens to molecular tools for recombinant protein expression, chimaeric viral vaccine production, and lately, as nanoagents for drug delivery. This review summarizes the genesis of viral vectors and agroinfection, the development of non-enveloped viruses for various biotechnological applications, and the on-going research on enveloped plant viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTospoviruses are among the most important plant pathogens and cause serious crop losses worldwide. Tospoviruses have evolved to smartly utilize the host cellular machinery to accomplish their life cycle. Plants mount two layers of defense to combat their invasion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTomato chlorotic spot virus (TCSV) and groundnut ringspot virus (GRSV) share several genetic and biological traits. Both of them belong to the genus (family ), which is composed by viruses with tripartite RNA genome that infect plants and are transmitted by thrips (order Thysanoptera). Previous studies have suggested several reassortment events between these two viruses, and some speculated that they may share one of their genomic segments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn October 2018, the order Bunyavirales was amended by inclusion of the family Arenaviridae, abolishment of three families, creation of three new families, 19 new genera, and 14 new species, and renaming of three genera and 22 species. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the order Bunyavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
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