Photosynthetic Alterations of Virus Infected Plants

Abstract

The most obvious symptom of systemic virus infection is the mosaic pattern of the leaves. Yellowing, chlorosis is also frequent and characteristic sign of the altered photosynthetic activity. Virus infection effects photosynthesis in a complex manner, depending on the particular host-virus combination. The symptoms are basically different in the incompatible or the compatible host-virus interaction.

Comparison of a compatible and an incompatible pepper-tobamovirus interaction by biochemical and non-invasive techniques: Chlorophyll a fluorescence, isothermal calorimetry and FT-Raman spectroscopy

“…Earlier, several studies reported already the suppression of photosynthesis in different plant/virus interactions. Lowered efficiency of energy flow was caused by structural/functional disturbances in membrane or directly by diminished chlorophyll content (Alm asi et al, 2001;Chaerle et al, 2007). In our experiments, chlorophyll a imaging results confirmed the substantial decrease of PSII efficiency in ObPV-inoculated leaves detected by PEA analysis.…”

“…The level of carotenoids, which also have a role in light harvesting and in protection from excess light by energy dissipation and singlet oxygen deactivation, can also be decreased by virus infections (Wilhelmov a et al, 2005). The photosynthetic electron transport in photosystem II (PSII) is usually severely impaired in virus-infected leaves, which results in disturbed CO 2 fixation, reduced carbohydrate accumulation, and plant growth (Rahoutei et al, 2000;Alm asi et al, 2001). On the other hand, the marked accumulation of starch in the chloroplasts was also reported in virus infected susceptible leaves, which suggests that the sink-source relationships should also be considered (T ecsi et al, 1994).…”

Comparative studies of compatible and incompatible pepper-Tobamovirus interactions and the evaluation of effects of 24-epibrassinolide

“…Viral pathogens can affect the number, size, and morphology of chloroplasts, in addition, they influence the size and number of chloroplast inclusions, e.g. of starch grains (Almási et al 2001). The oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of the photosynthetic electron transport chain was identified as the main target of either the Italian or the Spanish strain of PMMoV (PMMoV-I and PMMoV-S, respectively) in Nicotiana benthamiana (Rahoutei et al 1999, Pérez-Bueno et al 2004.…”

Why mosaic? Gene expression profiling of African cassava mosaic virus‐infected cassava reveals the effect of chlorophyll degradation on symptom development

“…In Abutilon mosaic virus ‐infected Abutilon , the ultrastructure of the chloroplasts was completely eliminated by inhibition and disorganization in the thylakoid system during the spring and summer (Schuchalter‐Eicke and Jeske ). Besides geminiviruses, there are also some studies on photosynthesis‐related parameters of virus‐infected crops and cultivated plants (Matthews ; Balachandran et al ; Almási et al ). An improved molecular understanding of this pathogenesis would benefit both efforts to breed resistant crops and develop therapeutic tools.…”