Viral fitness correlates with the magnitude and direction of the perturbation induced in the host's transcriptome: the tobacco etch potyvirus - tobacco case study.

ABSTRACT: Determination of fitness for viral genotypes is a standard practice in virology an essential to evaluate their evolutionary potential. Darwinian fitness, defined as the advantage of a given genotype respect to a reference one, is a macroscopic property that captures into a single figure differences in performance at every stage of viral infection. To which extent the expression of certain host genes determines viral fitness? Can we identify host’s genes whose expression have a significant effect on viral fitness? To which functional classes and regulatory networks do belong these genes? We compared the transcriptomes of tobacco plants infected with seven genotypes of tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) that differ in fitness. The larger the fitness differences among genotypes, the more dissimilar the transcriptomic profiles are. Some genes were significantly altered by all genotypes while others depend on viral fitness. We identified genes whose expression showed a positive correlation with TEV fitness and genes with a negative one. To validate these correlations, we analyzed the expression of four positively and five negatively correlated genes. Over-expression of the first group activates hormone-mediated plant defense pathways. Under-expression of the second group reduces metabolism, growth and development and/or plant viral resistance, resulting in higher susceptibility

ORGANISM(S): Nicotiana tabacum

PROVIDER: GSE99838 | GEO | 2018/03/05

REPOSITORIES: GEO