Elise Redondo

The Use of Green Fluorescent Protein-Tagged Recombinant Viruses to Test Lettuce mosaic virus Resistance in Lettuce

ABSTRACT Seed certification and the use of cultivars containing one of two, probably allelic, recessive genes, mo1(1) and mo1(2), are the principal control methods for Lettuce mosaic virus (LMV) in lettuce. Although for a few LMV isolates, mo1(2) confers resistance with most isolates, the genes mo1(1) or mo1(2) confer a tolerance, and virus accumulation is readily detected in mo1-carrying plants. This phenotype complicates evaluation of the resistance status, in particular for mo1(1), for which there are no viral strains against which a true resistance is expressed. Two green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged viruses were constructed, derived from a non-resistance breaking isolate (LMV-0) and from a resistance-breaking isolate (LMV-E). An evaluation of 101 cultivars of known status was carried out with these recombinant viruses. Using the LMV-0-derived recombinant, identification of mo1-carrying cultivars was simple because, contrary to its wild-type parent, systemic movement of LMV-0-GFP was abolished in resistant plants. This assay detected four cases of misidentification of resistance status. In all these cases, further tests confirmed that the prior resistance status information was incorrect, so that a 100% correlation was observed between LMV-0-GFP behavior and the mo1 resistance status. Similarly, the LMV-E-derived recombinant allowed the identification of mo1(2) lettuce lines because its systemic movement was restricted in mo1(2) lines but not in susceptible or in mo1(1) lines. The tagged viruses were able to systemically invade another host, pea, irrespective of its resistance status against another member of the genus Potyvirus, Pea seed-borne mosaic virus. The use of these recombinant viruses could therefore greatly facilitate LMV resistance evaluation and speed up lettuce breeding programs.

Plant viruses and the recent discovery of unforeseen basic cellular processes

Given their small genome size, the biological cycle of plant viruses is tightly integrated with the cellular processes of their host plants, so that studies of the viral biology will often provide insights into basic cellular processes. In the last decade, two such unforeseen mechanisms were discovered. One concerns intercellular communications: for their movement in infected plants, viruses use channels (plasmodesmata, phloem) also used by the plant to exchange information-rich molecules (proteins, RNAs) between cells. The second phenomenon concerns the existence, in plants, of an anti-viral defence mechanism based on the specific degradation of RNA molecules in the cytoplasm. This same mechanism, also allowing the regulation of gene expression (post-transcriptional gene silencing, PTGS) now appears to be widespread in pluricellular organisms. Besides their general interest, these new results modify drastically our vision of interactions between plant and viruses and raise numerous new research questions.

Quantitative control of Lettuce mosaic virus fitness and host defence inhibition by P1-HCPro

Two Lettuce mosaic virus isolates capable of overcoming the resistance afforded by the resistance gene mo12 in lettuce, LMV-AF199 from Brazil, and LMV-E, an European isolate, were evaluated for the rapidity and severity of symptoms induced on the lettuce variety Salinas 88 (mo12). The mosaic symptoms on Salinas 88 plants inoculated with LMV-AF199 appeared 7 days post-inoculation (dpi) and 15 dpi for LMV-E. The symptoms induced by LMV-AF199 in this cultivar were also more severe than those induced by LMV-E. In order to identify the region of the viral genome responsible for this phenotype, recombinant viruses were constructed between these isolates and the phenotype of each recombinant was analysed. The region encoding proteins P1 and HcPro from LMV-AF199 was associated with the increased virulence in Salinas 88.