Arabidopsis Is Susceptible To Rice Stripe Virus Infections

Rice stripe virus (RSV), a member of the genus Tenuivirus, causes rice stripe disease in East Asia and is one of the most economically important rice pathogens. The pathogenesis of RSV and the molecular basis of plant responses to the pathogen are poorly understood.We investigated the process of RSV infection in Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant that is highly susceptible to the virus. A simple inoculation method using viruliferous small brown planthoppers was developed to infect Arabidopsis plants with RSV. The symptoms were visible within two weeks after inoculation. By the one month after inoculation, all infected plants showed significantly stunted growth and vein chlorosis in newly emerged leaves. And by forty-five day after inoculation, RSV infected plants showed severely stunted growth and distorted flower stalk, the average flower stalk height was less than half of that in the mock controls. RSV replication in Arabidopsis was confirmed using a dot immunobinding assay (DIBA), reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and a protein gel blot assay. This Arabidopsis-RSV pathosystem will provide an approach for analyzing interactions between RSV and plants.The disease symptoms in Arabidopsis thaliana were investigated during infection by RSV. NahG, npr1-1, dcl2-1, dcl3-1, dcl4-2e, dcl2-1/dcl3-1, dcl2-1/dcl3-1/dcl4-2e, and wild-type Columbia-0plants were infected with RSV. By forty-five day after inoculation, transgenic Arabidopsis line NahG with low SA level showed increased susceptibility to RSV compared to wild-type plants. By forty-five day after inoculation, mutant Arabidopsis line nprl-1with non-expressor of PR genes and wild-type plants exhibited the same amount of growth. By forty-five day after inoculation, resistance of plants to RSV are decreased in mutant Arabidopsis line dcl3-1, dcl2-1/dcl3-1, dcl2-1/dcl3-1/dcl4-2e with non-expressor of DCL genes, compared to these in wild-type plants. By forty-five day after inoculation, non-expressor of DCL genes in mutant Arabidopsis line dcl2-1, dcl3-1, dcl4-2e and wild-type plants exhibited the same amount of growth.