Viruses for breakfast, lunch and dinner

• Main Authors: Geering, Andrew D., Choisne, Nathalie, Vezzulli, Silvia, Scalabrin, Simone, Quesneville, Hadi, Velasco, Riccardo, Teycheney, Pierre-Yves
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Brendan Rodoni 2010
• Subjects: H20 - Maladies des plantes; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://agritrop.cirad.fr/569603/; http://agritrop.cirad.fr/569603/1/document_569603.pdf; http://www.appsnet.org/publications/proceedings/9th%20apvw%20abstract%20book.pdf

Endogenous sequences from members of the Caulimoviridae and Geminiviridae have been identified in the genome of several plant species. These sequences are thought to result from illegitimate recombination events and are generally replication-defective. However, some endogenous caulimovirid sequences in tobacco, petunia and banana are capable of causing infection. We have performed in silico analyses on nucleotide sequences from plant genome databases and reconstituted twelve full length and potentially replication-competent viral genomes from endogenous viral sequences embedded in the genomes of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plant species of the Brassicaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, Poaceae, Rutaceae, Salicaceae and Vitaceae. Sequence analyses show that the corresponding viruses belong to a new genus in the family Caulimoviridae, tentatively named Dionyvirus. Maps showing the distribution of the endogenous dionyviral sequences in the genomes of Vitis vinifera, Prunus persica and Oryza sativa have been produced and copy numbers determined. Dionyvirus-specific primers were designed and used for a PCR-based large scale screening of plant germplasm, which demonstrated that that the endogenous dionyviral sequences are widespread among plants of temperate, tropical and subarctic origins. The potential contributions of endogenous viral sequences to normal plant functions and to plant and virus evolution will be discussed.