Water Deficit Improves Reproductive Fitness in Nicotiana benthamiana Plants Infected by Cucumber mosaic virus.

ABSTRACT: Plants are concurrently exposed to biotic and abiotic stresses, including infection by viruses and drought. Combined stresses result in plant responses that are different from those observed for each individual stress. We investigated compensatory effects induced by virus infection on the fitness of hosts grown under water deficit, and the hypothesis that water deficit improves tolerance, estimated as reproductive fitness, to virus infection. Our results show that infection by Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) or Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) promotes drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana. However, neither CMV nor TuMV had a positive impact on host reproductive fitness following withdrawal of water, as determined by measuring the number of i

SUBMITTER: Moreno M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9105947 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature