Infection of Colletotrichum acutatum and Phytophthora infestans by taxonomically different plant viruses

Abstract

Viruses are common in fungi and oomycetes and some of these viruses share sequence identities with plant viruses belonging to different families and genera. Replication of the plant virus tobacco mosaic virus has been demonstrated in the phytopathogenic fungi Colletotrichum acutatum, C. clavatum and C. theobromicola and more recently, infection of cucumber mosaic virus has been reported in Rhizoctonia solani isolated from potato plants in the field. Here we show that artichoke mottled crinkle virus, potato virus X, potato virus Y and cucumber mosaic virus plus its satellite RNA can replicate and persist in C. acutatum at least through the first subculture and that artichoke Italian latent virus, artichoke mottled crinkle virus, potato virus X, potato virus Y, tobacco mosaic virus and cucumber mosaic virus plus its satellite RNA can replicate and persist in Phytophthora infestans at least through the first subculture. These observations suggest that, unlike in plants, there may be a different basis for host-virus specificity in plant virus infection in filamentous fungi and oomycetes.