BioProject

Research on the plant viruses has been focused mainly on agricultural crop diseases, therefore little is known about the existence or behavior of plant viruses under natural environment. More...

Research on the plant viruses has been focused mainly on agricultural crop diseases, therefore little is known about the existence or behavior of plant viruses under natural environment. In this study, we conducted RNA-Seq analysis of wild plant Arabidopsis halleri subsp. gemmifera (Matsum.) and examined the infection of all known virus, 3981 species. We determined infection/un-infection of viruses by mapping of the RNA-Seq reads on their genomes. We could clearly divide infected/uninfected viruses by considering coverage of virus genome by the reads in addition to amount of mapped reads. Infection of 3 viruses, Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), Brassica yellows virus (BrYV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) were detected. 59% of plants were infected by any virus. 38%-53% of each virus infection were asymptomatic in the host plant, although active replication of virus was suggested by ultramicroscopic observation. The most frequently infected virus was TuMV. Multiple infection was significantly frequent in TuMV infected leaves. TuMV was suggested to facilitate other virus infection in the host plant by suppressing host RNA-silencing. Simultaneously, analysis of host transcriptome revealed upregulation of AGO2 gene expression which indicates host response to virus infection. As far as we know, this is a first report that comprehensively analyzed the infection of all known viruses and their host transcriptomes in wild plants under natural environment. Revealing hidden plant-virus interaction under natural environments is important not only in ecology of biological interaction, but also agricultural application through revealing natural history of crop pests. Less...