Suppressor activity of potyviral and cucumoviral infections in potyvirus-induced transgene silencing.

Abstract

The process known as 'recovery' by which virus-infected plants become resistant to the infection is an interesting phenomenon where both RNA silencing and virus resistance fully converge. In a previous study, we showed that transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana NIbV3 plants, transformed with a mutated NIb coding sequence from Plum pox virus (PPV), showed a delayed, very specific, resistance phenotype, which was induced by the initial infection. This recovery was the consequence of the activation of an RNA silencing mechanism in the PPV-infected plant, which took place even though PPV encodes a silencing suppressor (HCPro). Making use of plants regenerated from the recovered tissue, which maintained the transgene silencing/virus resistance phenotype, we have demonstrated that both Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Tobacco vein mottling virus (TVMV), expressing the silencing suppressor 2b and HCPro, respectively, were able to reactivate transgene expression. Surprisingly, only the silencing suppression caused by CMV, but not that originating from TVMV, was able to revert the recovered NIbV3 plants to a PPV-susceptible phenotype.