Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas UPM-INIA and E.T.S. Ingeniería Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, 28223, Spain.
Departamento de Biología Medioambiental, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CSIC, Madrid, 28040, Spain.
Phytopathology. 2023 Sep;113(9):1773-1787. doi: 10.1094/PHYTO-11-22-0448-V. Epub 2023 Nov 3.
Seed transmission is a major mode for plant virus persistence and dispersal, as it allows for virus survival within the seed in unfavorable conditions and facilitates spread when they become more favorable. To access these benefits, viruses require infected seeds to remain viable and germinate in altered environmental conditions, which may also be advantageous for the plant. However, how environmental conditions and virus infection affect seed viability, and whether these effects modulate seed transmission rate and plant fitness, is unknown. To address these questions, we utilized turnip mosaic virus, cucumber mosaic virus, and as model systems. Using seeds from plants infected by these viruses, we analyzed seed germination rates, as a proxy of seed viability, and virus seed transmission rate under standard and altered temperature, CO, and light intensity. With these data, we developed and parameterized a mathematical epidemiological model to explore the consequences of the observed alterations on virus prevalence and persistence. Altered conditions generally reduced overall seed viability and increased virus transmission rate compared with standard conditions, which indicated that under environmental stress, infected seeds are more viable. Hence, virus presence may be beneficial for the host. Subsequent simulations predicted that enhanced viability of infected seeds and higher virus transmission rate may increase virus prevalence and persistence in the host population under altered conditions. This work provides novel information on the influence of the environment in plant virus epidemics. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
种子传播是植物病毒持续存在和扩散的主要方式，因为它允许病毒在不利条件下在种子内存活，并在条件变得更有利时促进传播。为了获得这些益处，病毒需要感染的种子在改变的环境条件下保持活力并发芽，这对植物来说也可能是有利的。然而，环境条件和病毒感染如何影响种子活力，以及这些影响是否调节种子传播率和植物适应性，目前尚不清楚。为了解决这些问题，我们利用芜菁花叶病毒、黄瓜花叶病毒和烟草脆裂病毒作为模型系统。利用这些病毒感染的植物种子，我们分析了种子发芽率（作为种子活力的替代指标）以及标准和改变温度、CO 和光照强度下的病毒种子传播率。利用这些数据，我们开发并参数化了一个数学流行病学模型，以探索观察到的变化对病毒流行率和持久性的影响。与标准条件相比，改变的条件通常会降低整体种子活力并增加病毒传播率，这表明在环境压力下，感染的种子更有活力。因此，病毒的存在可能对宿主有益。后续模拟预测，在改变的条件下，受感染种子活力的增强和更高的病毒传播率可能会增加病毒在宿主群体中的流行率和持久性。这项工作为环境对植物病毒流行的影响提供了新的信息。
