Rice yellow stunt virus activates polyamine biosynthesis to promote viral propagation in insect vectors by disrupting ornithine decarboxylase antienzyme function.

Intracellular polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) have emerged as important molecules for viral infection; however, how viruses activate polyamines biosynthesis to promote viral infection remains unclear. Ornithine decarboxylase 1 (ODC1) and its antienzyme 1 (OAZ1) are major regulators of polyamine biosynthesis in animal cells. Here, we report that rice yellow stunt virus (RYSV), a plant rhabdovirus, could activate putrescine biosynthesis in leafhoppers to promote viral propagation by inhibiting OAZ1 expression.

Rice Yellow Stunt Nucleorhabdovirus Matrix Protein Mediates Viral Axonal Transport in the Central Nervous System of Its Insect Vector.

Persistently transmitted plant viruses encounter multiple membrane and tissue barriers in the process of completing their infection routes within their insect vectors. Some of these viruses have been reported to overcome the elaborate barriers of the central nervous system (CNS) to travel through the nervous tissues, but the specific mechanisms of this process remain unknown. Here, we report the axonal transport mechanism of rice yellow stunt virus (RYSV), a nucleorhabdovirus, in the CNS of the green rice leafhopper ().