Abstract
BackgroundTobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) has been extensively used as model system for the study of positive-sense RNA virus infecting plants. TEV ability to infect Arabidopsis thaliana varies among ecotypes. In this study, changes in gene expression of A. thaliana ecotype Ler infected with TEV have been explored using long-oligonucleotide arrays. A. thaliana Ler is a susceptible host that allows systemic movement, although the viral load is low and syndrome induced ranges from asymptomatic to mild. Gene expression profiles were monitored in whole plants 21 days post-inoculation (dpi). Microarrays contained 26,173 protein-coding genes and 87 miRNAs.ResultsExpression analysis identified 1727 genes that displayed significant and consistent changes in expression levels either up or down, in infected plants. Identified TEV-responsive genes encode a diverse array of functional categories that include responses to biotic (such as the systemic acquired resistance pathway and hypersensitive responses) and abiotic stresses (droughtness, salinity, temperature, and wounding). The expression of many different transcription factors was also significantly affected, including members of the R2R3-MYB family and ABA-inducible TFs. In concordance with several other plant and animal viruses, the expression of heat-shock proteins (HSP) was also increased. Finally, we have associated functional GO categories with KEGG biochemical pathways, and found that many of the altered biological functions are controlled by changes in basal metabolism.ConclusionTEV infection significantly impacts a wide array of cellular processes, in particular, stress-response pathways, including the systemic acquired resistance and hypersensitive responses. However, many of the observed alterations may represent a global response to viral infection rather than being specific of TEV.
Highlights
Tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) has been extensively used as model system for the study of positive-sense RNA virus infecting plants
We used the SAM package [14], with a 5% false discovery rate (FDR) to identify individual genes whose expression was altered after the infection with TEV
No differences existed among chromosomes in the distribution of up-regulated, non-affected and down-regulated genes upon infection with TEV, suggesting that genes involved in response to TEV infection were not clustered but randomly distribute among the five chromosomes
Summary
Tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) has been extensively used as model system for the study of positive-sense RNA virus infecting plants. As a response to viral infection, cells may compensate by over- or under-expressing certain metabolic pathways, including specific antiviral responses (e.g., the interferon or RNA silencing pathways) Taken together, all these alterations determine the strength and type of symptoms displayed by infected organisms. In the case of plant viruses, in the absence of a hypersensitive response (i.e., apoptotic cell death), cells that have successfully supported viral replication do not die but retain large amounts of viral particles while the infections spreads out through the plasmodesmata to neighboring cells until reaching the vascular system and colonizing distant susceptible tissues The outcome of this systemic infection is the appearance of symptoms. Even for a given pair of plant and virus species, symptoms will depend upon specific combinations of plant and virus genotypes and, on environmental conditions
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