Histopathology for the Influence of CMV Infection on Tomato Cellular Structures

Abstract

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) causes wide‐spread diseases that damage some crops worldwide. One strain of the virus was isolated from tomato plants grown in Kuwait designated CMV‐KU1. This isolate was found to be associated with a benign viral satellite RNA, causing mild symptoms on infected tomato plants. Another isolate, CMV‐16, a severe stunting strain and lacking viral satellite RNA was used in a comparative study with the isolated mild strain of the virus CMV‐KU1. Both CMV strains were used as antigens to prepare murine monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies for serological confirmation using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to confirm the identity of viral strains in infected plant tissues. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of the viral infection on tissues, cells and cellular organelles in test plants using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to determine the extent of infection and host‐virus interactions and damage caused by virus isolates on tomato. Electron micrographs of ultra‐thin sections proved the presence of the viral particles, the formation of viral crystalline bodies, chloroplast damage and malformation due to the infection caused by the virus in infected plant tissues. The viral infection caused a reduction in chloroplast number and size. As the infection progressed, chloroplasts were completely destroyed and the grana were disorganized and scattered into the cytoplasm that causes reduction in chlorophyll contents in plant tissues.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported and funded by Kuwait University Research Grant No. [SL 01/13 & YS 07/10]