High Temperature, High Ambient CO₂ Affect the Interactions between Three Positive-Sense RNA Viruses and a Compatible Host Differentially, but not Their Silencing Suppression Efficiencies

PLoS One. 2015 Aug 27;10(8):e0136062. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136062. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

We compared infection of Nicotiana benthamiana plants by the positive-sense RNA viruses Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Potato virus Y (PVY), and by a Potato virus X (PVX) vector, the latter either unaltered or expressing the CMV 2b protein or the PVY HCPro suppressors of silencing, at 25°C vs. 30°C, or at standard (~401 parts per million, ppm) vs. elevated (970 ppm) CO2 levels. We also assessed the activities of their suppressors of silencing under those conditions. We found that at 30°C, accumulation of the CMV isolate and infection symptoms remained comparable to those at 25°C, whereas accumulation of the PVY isolate and those of the three PVX constructs decreased markedly, even when expressing the heterologous suppressors 2b or HCPro, and plants had either very attenuated or no symptoms. Under elevated CO2 plants grew larger, but contained less total protein/unit of leaf area. In contrast to temperature, infection symptoms remained unaltered for the five viruses at elevated CO2 levels, but viral titers in leaf disks as a proportion of the total protein content increased in all cases, markedly for CMV, and less so for PVY and the PVX constructs. Despite these differences, we found that neither high temperature nor elevated CO2 prevented efficient suppression of silencing by their viral suppressors in agropatch assays. Our results suggest that the strength of antiviral silencing at high temperature or CO2 levels, or those of the viral suppressors that counteract it, may not be the main determinants of the observed infection outcomes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Blotting, Western
  • Carbon Dioxide / metabolism*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Cucumovirus / genetics
  • Cucumovirus / pathogenicity*
  • Genes, Suppressor*
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions*
  • Nicotiana / genetics*
  • Nicotiana / metabolism
  • Nicotiana / virology
  • Plant Diseases / genetics
  • Plant Diseases / virology
  • Plant Leaves / genetics
  • Plant Leaves / metabolism
  • Plant Leaves / virology
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / metabolism
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / virology
  • Potexvirus / genetics
  • Potexvirus / pathogenicity*
  • Potyvirus / genetics
  • Potyvirus / pathogenicity*
  • RNA, Messenger / genetics
  • RNA, Viral / genetics
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Temperature

Substances

  • RNA, Messenger
  • RNA, Viral
  • Carbon Dioxide

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grant PJ009461 from the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of the Republic of Korea (http://www.rda.go.kr/foreign/eng/), in cooperation with the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC; www.csic.es), and also by grant BIO2013-47940-R from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; http://www.mineco.gob.es/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.