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Molecular and genetic determinants of plant tolerance to viruses

Project description

How plants learn to live with viruses

Plant viruses can be destructive, causing losses in agricultural crops. However, in wild plants, the same virus may accumulate without inducing disease symptoms. With this in mind, the EU-funded TolGreen project explores the natural mechanisms that allow certain plants to tolerate viruses such as tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and oilseed rape mosaic virus (ORMV). By studying how these viruses interact with Arabidopsis plants at the molecular level, the project aims to identify the genetic and protein factors that enable this resilience. Using molecular genetics and proteomics, TolGreen’s goal is to uncover how plants can maintain health despite infection, paving the way for breeding virus-tolerant crops.

Objective

Viral diseases cause severe damage to cultivated plants, resulting in global crop losses. In the wild, however, plants are typically free of viral disease symptoms despite recurrent infection. Naturally tolerant plants have a significant viral load, but their growth, development and reproduction are only minimally affected. The aim of the TolGreen project is to identify viral and host determinants of tolerance by using Arabidopsis-infecting RNA viruses such as Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and the related Oilseed rape mosaic virus (ORMV) as models. Certain natural accessions of A. thaliana (Col-0) are tolerant to TMV whereas other ecotypes (Sha) show disease. By contrast, Col-0 plants infected with ORMV are initially symptomatic but develop tolerance in the new leaves. The host laboratory demonstrated that this latter tolerance phenotype depends on genes required for the production of primary and secondary siRNAs and also correlates with the loss of the activity of the viral RNA silencing suppressor (VSR). The tobamoviral VSR proteins inhibit antiviral RNA silencing by sequestration of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which inhibits the assembly of the antiviral RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). Therefore, tolerance may occur when the VSR siRNA binding activity is saturated by host- or virus-derived siRNAs. Using the latest tools of molecular genetics and proteomics, TolGreen will determine Arabidopsis genes, viral and host-derived siRNAs as well as VSR-interacting proteins that control VSR activity and are involved in tolerance. Understanding the molecular mechanism of tolerance will provide important tools for the breeding of resilient, virus-tolerant crops for a more sustainable agriculture.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution
€ 195 914,88
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost
No data