A Symbiotic Virus Facilitates Aphid Adaptation to Host Plants by Suppressing Jasmonic Acid Responses.

Symbiotic viruses exist in many insects; however, their functions in host insects are not well understood. In this study, we explored the role of acyrthosiphon pisum virus (APV) in the interaction of its host aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum with plants. APV is primarily located in aphid salivary glands and gut and propagated in the insect. APV is horizontally transmitted to host plants during aphid feeding, but the virus does not replicate in the host plant. When the pea host race of aphids colonized two low-fitness plants, Medicago truncatula and Vicia villosa, the virus titers in both the aphids and plants significantly increased. Furthermore, APV infection strongly promoted the survival rate of the pea host race on V. villosa. Transcriptomic analysis showed that only 0.85% of aphid genes responded to APV infection when aphids fed on V. villosa, with a fold change in transcript levels of no more than fourfold. The improved survival due to APV infection was apparently related to the inhibitory effect of the virus on levels of phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) and JA-isoleucine. Our data suggest a benefit of the symbiotic virus to its aphid host and demonstrate a novel case of symbiotic virus-mediated three-species interaction.

Nanovirus-alphasatellite complex identified in Vicia cracca in the Rhône delta region of France.

Nanoviruses are multi-component plant-infecting single-stranded DNA viruses. Using a viral metagenomics-informed approach, a new nanovirus and two associated alphasatellite molecules have been identified in an uncultivated asymptomatic Vicia cracca plant in the Rhône region of France. This novel nanovirus genome includes eight genomic components (named DNA-R, DNA-S, DNA-M, DNA-C, DNA-N, DNA-U1, DNA-U2 and DNA-U4) and, across all components, shares < 66% pairwise sequence identity with other nanovirus genomes. The two associated alphasatellites share 62% identity with each other and < 81% identity will all other nanovirus-associated alphasatellites.

[Characteristic of one-paired pea virus].

The new virus isolated from Vicia unijuga A.Br. with filament particles with size 1000-1200 x 10-12 nm is revealed. A thermal inactivation point is 55 degrees C; dilution end point - 10(-5)-10(-6) longevity in vitro in broad bean sap--less than one day. It is transferred by aphids and by pea, bean and broad bean seeds. The plants of Fabaceae, Solanaceae and Chenopodiaceae fam. were affected by this virus isolate. The virus yield was 40-50 mg per 100 g of leaves. The ratio of absorption E260/E280 corresponded to 1.4-1.5. The molecular mass of a core protein of the virus was 34 kD. The virus has a high immunogenic properties--titer is 1:256000 (indirect method of ELISA). It is presumably identified as a member of Closteroviridae.

Do plant viruses facilitate their aphid vectors by inducing symptoms that alter behavior and performance?

Aphids can respond both positively and negatively to virus-induced modifications of the shared host plant. It can be speculated that viruses dependent on aphids for their transmission might evolve to induce changes in the host plant that attract aphids and improve their performance, subsequently enhancing the success of the pathogen itself. We studied how pea aphids [Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris)] responded to infection of tic beans (Vicia faba L.) by three viruses with varying degrees of dependence on this aphid for their transmission: pea enation mosaic virus (PEMV), bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV), and broad bean mottle virus (BBMV). BYMV has a nonpersistent mode of transmission by aphids, whereas PEMV is transmitted in a circulative-persistent manner. BBMV is not aphid transmitted. When reared on plants infected by PEMV, no changes in aphid survival, growth, or reproductive performance were observed, whereas infection of beans by the other aphid-dependent virus, BYMV, actually caused a reduction in aphid survival in some assays. None of the viruses induced A. pisum to increase production of winged progeny, and aphids settled preferentially on leaf tissue from plants infected by all three viruses, the likely mechanism being visual responses to yellowing of foliage. Thus, in this system, the attractiveness of an infected host plant and its quality in terms of aphid growth and reproduction were not related to the pathogen's dependence on the aphid for transmission to new hosts.