Arabidopsis thaliana Genes Associated with Cucumber mosaic virus Virulence and Their Link to Virus Seed Transmission

Abstract

Virulence, the effect of pathogen infection on progeny production, is a major determinant of host and pathogen fitness as it affects host fecundity and pathogen transmission. In plant–virus interactions, ample evidence indicates that virulence is genetically controlled by both partners. However, the host genetic determinants are poorly understood. Through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 154 Arabidopsis thaliana genotypes infected by Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), we identified eight host genes associated with virulence, most of them involved in response to biotic stresses and in cell wall biogenesis in plant reproductive structures. Given that virulence is a main determinant of the efficiency of plant virus seed transmission, we explored the link between this trait and the genetic regulation of virulence. Our results suggest that the same functions that control virulence are also important for CMV transmission through seeds. In sum, this work provides evidence of a novel role for some previously known plant defense genes and for the cell wall metabolism in plant virus interactions.

Deciphering the Genetic Architecture of Plant Virus Resistance by GWAS, State of the Art and Potential Advances

“…However, when genetic markers were selected regarding the LD or tested with statistical models such as MLMM, single significant markers remained good QTL candidates. In that respect, Montes et al (2021), who used FarmCPU to map A. thaliana resistance to CMV, detected eight QTLs, all supported by just one SNP.…”

“…ELISA and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) can produce both qualitative and quantitative data, but quantitative data are more expensive and time consuming than qualitative ones. Four plant-virus GWAS used quantitative ELISA and three plant-virus GWAS used (RT)-qPCR to measure the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and the Sugarcane yellow leaf virus accumulations in an A. thaliana and a sugarcane diversity panel, respectively [39,65]. Virus accumulation calculated by ELISA or (RT)-qPCR as phenotypic trait gave high heritabilities of between 0.5 and 0.75.…”

Transmission through seeds: The unknown life of plant viruses

“…Also, in barley and pea, it has been shown that seed transmission of Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) and Pea seed-borne mosaic virus (PSbMV), respectively, is controlled by a few unidentified loci of quantitative effect [ 21 ]. In Arabidopsis, genome-wide association studies have identified genes related to plant response to stresses, embryogenesis, and cell wall metabolism (involved in virus within-host movement) as associated with Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) seed transmission [ 25 ]. These in silico analyses need to be experimentally validated, but functions of the identified genes agree with predictions above.…”

Genetic basis ofArabidopsis thalianaresponses to infection by naïve and adapted isolates of turnip mosaic virus

“…Rubio et al used TuMV and 317 lines grown under field conditions [11], while Butković et al also used TuMV but 450 lines kept in laboratory conditions [12]. Montes et al [13] and by Liu et al [14] used 156 and . CC-BY 4.0 International license made available under a (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.…”