An infectious cDNA clone of a radish-infecting Turnip mosaic virus strain

Abstract

Turnip Mosaic Virus (TuMV) is an economically important potyvirus for which hundreds of hosts have been reported, thus making it a rather exceptional case in the genus. Several viral infectious clones have been generated over the years, which have been useful in deciphering the viral elements involved in the interactions of this virus with the host plant, such as different forms of resistance, gene silencing suppression, host range or host developmental alterations. However, all infectious clones obtained so far correspond to viral isolates within the same phylogenetic cluster, a circumstance biasing our understanding of the peculiarities of this potyvirus. In particular, members of one viral cluster of radish-infecting isolates have been especially reluctant to be copied into infectious clones. This paper reports the construction of an infectious clone of the TuMV isolate JPN 1, belonging to this cluster. The infectious clone maintains all the distinctive biological properties previously described for this viral isolate. The availability of this infectious clone opens the door to many additional studies on the virus, which should allow a deeper understanding of the differential responses to different strains of TuMV in several different hosts.