Mal de Río Cuarto virus infection causes hormone imbalance and sugar accumulation in wheat leaves

ARELLANO, SOFÍA MAITÉ; DUMÓN, ANALÍA DELINA; LLAUGER, GABRIELA; PEARCE, STEPHEN; DE HARO, LUIS ALEJANDRO; FEIL, REGINA; TARKOWSKÁ, DANU?E; LUNN, JOHN EDWARD; DEL VAS, MARIANA; DE HARO, LUIS ALEJANDRO; FEIL, REGINA; TARKOWSKÁ, DANU?E; LUNN, JOHN EDWARD; DEL VAS, MARIANA; NOVÁK, ONDREJ; MATTIO, MARÍA FERNANDA; STRNAD, MIROSLAV; FIGUEROA, CARLOS MARÍA; NOVÁK, ONDREJ; MATTIO, MARÍA FERNANDA; STRNAD, MIROSLAV; FIGUEROA, CARLOS MARÍA; ARELLANO, SOFÍA MAITÉ; DUMÓN, ANALÍA DELINA; LLAUGER, GABRIELA; PEARCE, STEPHEN

BMC PLANT BIOLOGY

BIOMED CENTRAL LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019 vol. 19

1471-2229

Background: Mal de Río Cuarto virus (MRCV) infects several monocotyledonous species including maize andwheat. Infected plants show shortened internodes, partial sterility, increased tillering and reduced root length. Tobetter understand the molecular basis of the plant-virus interactions leading to these symptoms, we combined RNAsequencing with metabolite and hormone measurements.Results: More than 3000 differentially accumulated transcripts (DATs) were detected in MRCV-infected wheat plantsat 21 days post inoculation compared to mock-inoculated plants. Infected plants exhibited decreased levels ofTaSWEET13 transcripts, which are involved in sucrose phloem loading. Soluble sugars, starch, trehalose 6-phosphate(Tre6P), and organic and amino acids were all higher in MRCV-infected plants. In addition, several transcripts relatedto plant hormone metabolism, transport and signalling were increased upon MRCV infection. Transcripts coding forGA20ox, D14, MAX2 and SMAX1-like proteins involved in gibberellin biosynthesis and strigolactone signalling, werereduced. Transcripts involved in jasmonic acid, ethylene and brassinosteroid biosynthesis, perception and signallingand in auxin transport were also altered. Hormone measurements showed that jasmonic acid, brassinosteroids,abscisic acid and indole-3-acetic acid were significantly higher in infected leaves.Conclusions: Our results indicate that MRCV causes a profound hormonal imbalance that, together with alterationsin sugar partitioning, could account for the symptoms observed in MRCV-infected plants.Keywords: Disease symptoms, Fijivirus, MRCV, Plant hormones, Reoviridae, Sucrose metabolism, SWEET transporters,Trehalose 6-phosphate, Wheat