Instituto de Biología Integrativa de Sistemas (I2SysBio), CSIC-Universitat de València , Valencia 46980, Spain.
Santa Fe Institute , Santa Fe, NM, USA.
Biol Lett. 2024 Aug;20(8):20240278. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0278. Epub 2024 Aug 14.
The heat-shock response plays a key role in the immune defence against viruses across various organisms. Studies on model organisms have shown that inducing this response prior to viral exposure enhances host resistance to infections, while deficient responses make individuals more susceptible. Moreover, viruses rely on components of the heat-shock response for their own stability and viral infections improve thermal tolerance in plants, giving infected individuals an advantage in extreme conditions, which aids the virus in replication and transmission. Here, we examine the interaction between the nematode and its natural pathogen the Orsay virus (OrV) under heat stress. We found that OrV infection leads to differential expression of heat-stress-related genes, and infected populations show increased resistance to heat-shock. This resistance correlates with increased expression of argonautes and , which are crucial for survival after heat-shock and for OrV replication. Overall, our study suggests an environmental-dependent mutualistic relationship between the nematode and OrV, potentially expanding the animal's ecological niche and providing the virus with extra opportunities for replication and adaptation to extreme conditions.
热休克反应在各种生物体的抗病毒免疫防御中起着关键作用。对模式生物的研究表明，在病毒暴露前诱导这种反应可以增强宿主对感染的抵抗力，而反应不足会使个体更容易感染。此外，病毒依赖热休克反应的成分来维持自身的稳定性，而病毒感染可以提高植物的耐热性，使受感染的个体在极端条件下具有优势，从而有助于病毒的复制和传播。在这里，我们研究了线虫及其天然病原体奥尔赛病毒（OrV）在热应激下的相互作用。我们发现，OrV 感染导致与热应激相关的基因表达差异，并且受感染的种群对热休克表现出更高的抗性。这种抗性与 argonautes 和 的表达增加相关，这对于热休克后生存和 OrV 复制至关重要。总的来说，我们的研究表明线虫和 OrV 之间存在一种依赖环境的共生关系，这可能会扩大动物的生态位，并为病毒提供更多的复制和适应极端条件的机会。
