Sustained NIK-mediated antiviral signalling confers broad-spectrum tolerance to begomoviruses in cultivated plants.

ABSTRACT: Begomovirus-associated epidemics currently threaten tomato production worldwide due to the emergence of highly pathogenic virus species and the proliferation of a whitefly B biotype vector that is adapted to tomato. To generate an efficient defence against begomovirus, we modulated the activity of the immune defence receptor nuclear shuttle protein (NSP)-interacting kinase (NIK) in tomato plants; NIK is a virulence target of the begomovirus NSP during infection. Mutation of T474 within the kinase activation loop promoted the constitutive activation of NIK-mediated defences, resulting in the down-regulation of translation-related genes and the suppression of global translation. Consistent with these findings, transgenic lines harbouring an activating mutation (T474D) were tolerant to the to

SUBMITTER: Brustolini OJB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4857726 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature