Coat protein of partitiviruses isolated from mycorrhizal fungi functions as an RNA silencing suppressor in plants and fungi.

Orchid seeds depend on colonization by orchid mycorrhizal (OM) fungi for their germination; therefore, the orchids and OM fungi have long maintained a close relationship (e.g., formation of the hyphal mass structure, peloton) during their evolution. In the present study, we isolated new partitiviruses from OM fungi; partitivirus were separately found in different subcultures from the same fungi. Partitiviruses have been believed to lack an RNA silencing suppressor (RSS), which is generally associated with viral pathogenicity, because most partitiviruses isolated so far are latent in both plants and fungi. However, we found that the coat protein (CP) of our partitiviruses indeed had RSS activity, which differed among the virus isolates from OM fungi; one CP showed RSS activity in both plants and fungi, while another CP showed no activity. The family Partitiviridae include viruses isolated from plants and fungi, and it has been suggested that these viruses may occasionally be transmitted between plant and fungal hosts. Given that there are several reports showing that viruses can adapt to nonhost using strong RSS, we here discussed the idea that partitiviruses may be better able to migrate between the orchid and fungus probably through the pelotons formed in the orchid cells, if host RNA silencing is suppressed by partitivirus RSS.