Diverse Regulations of Viral and Host Genes in Tomato Germplasms Responding to Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Inoculation

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is the dominating pathogen of tomato yellow leaf curl disease that caused severe loss to tomato production in China. In this study, we found that a TYLCV-resistant tomato line drastically reduced the accumulation of viral complementary-sense strand mRNAs but just moderately inhibit that of viral DNA and virion-sense strand mRNAs. However, two other resistant lines did not have such virus inhibition pattern. Analysis of differential expressed genes showed that the potential host defense-relevant processes varied in different resistant tomatoes, as compared to the susceptible line, suggesting a diversity of tomato TYLCV-resistance mechanisms.

Effect of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Infection on Some Growth Indicators of Pepper Hybrids Grown Under Plastic House Conditions in Lattakia Governorate, Syria

Hamdan, R.S., I.D. Ismail and I. Akel. 2021. Effect of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Infection on Some Growth Indicators of Pepper Hybrids Grown Under Plastic House Conditions in Lattakia Governorate, Syria. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 39(4): 309-316. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-39.4.309316 This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) infection on some growth parameters of several pepper hybrids grown under protected cultivation along the Syrian coast. Four pepper hybrids (Capsicum annum) were tested, two hot (Lahab, Sirad) and two sweet (Nevada, Dallas) peppers. The research was carried out during the 2020-2021 growing season in a plastic house at the Agriculture Scientific Research Center in Lattakia, using a randomized complete block design, with 8 treatments, three replicates and 5 plants per replicate. The results obtained showed that the sweet pepper hybrids (Nevada, Dallas) were more sensitive to infection with Tomato yellow leaf curl virus than the hot pepper hybrids (Lahab, Sirad), without significant differences among them. The pepper hybrid Nevada did not show any apparent symptoms, and the effect of the virus on some growth parameters (number flowers, flower setting, and the leaf surface area) was evident in comparison with other hybrids, but the differences were not significant. The Dallas, Sirad and Lahab pepper hybrids showed visible symptoms in response to infection with infection rate of 93.33%, 80% and 80%, respectively. The effect of virus infection on the growth parameters of these hybrids was variable. The reduction in the flowers number of Nevada, Dallas, Cirad and Lahab after 45 days of infection was 33%, 31.10%, 10.23% and 5.07%, respectively, and also with a reduction in the number of flowers setting of 77.39%, 20.87%, 23.33% and 66.68%, respectively. The same was true for the leaf surface area, where reduction rate for the Nevada, Dallas, Sirad and Lahab hybrids 30 days after infection was 48.17%, 53.06%, 16.45% and 36.6%, respectively. Keywords: Tomato yellow leaf curl virus, pepper hybrids, growth parameter, host resistance, protected agriculture.

Induction of Systemic Resistance in Tomato Plants Against Tomato yellow leaf curl virus in Protected Cultivation Using a Local Bacterial Isolate of Bacillus subtilis

Ghanem, H.M., E.H. Akel, Q.A. Al-Rhayeh and I.D. Ismail. 2021. Induction of Systemic Resistance in Tomato Plants Against Tomato yellow leaf curl virus in Protected Cultivation Using a Local Bacterial Isolate of Bacillus subtilis. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 39(4): 289-295. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-039.4.289295 This study was conducted at the Agricultural Scientific Research Center in Lattakia Governorate in a plastic house during the 2020/2021 growing season to evaluate the efficiency of the native bacterial isolate B.Ra.217 of Bacillus subtilis, in reducing infection of tomato plants with Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), by treating tomato seeds and later watering the seedlings with a suspension of the tested bacteria at a concentration of 1x109 /ml, and then measuring incidence (%) and severity of virus infection, and estimating peroxidase enzyme activity. The results showed that 30 days after inoculation with tomato leaf curl virus, a decrease in virus infection rate and severity in virus-infected and bacteria-treated plants compared with virus-infected and untreated control plants was observed. The reduction in disease incidence and severity of infection reached 26.67% and 34.28%, respectively, with significant differences between the treatments. In addition, the activity of peroxidase enzyme 7 days after infection with the virus showed an increase in plants treated with bacteria only (0.1342 μmol/mg) and those treated with bacteria and virus-infected (0.0913 μmol/mg), compared with the healthy control plants (0.0958 μmol/mg), and virus-infected and untreated with bacteria (0.0570 µmol/mg). The results also showed 15 days after infection that the enzyme activity was higher in plants treated with bacteria only (0.1592 µmol/mg) compared with the healthy control (0.1415 µmol/mg) with significant differences, and also the differences were significant with the untreated infected plants (0.1002 µmol/mg), and with inoculated and treated plants (0.1372 µmol/mg). Thus, this bacterial isolate may have an important applied role in enhancing tomato plant resistance to the virus and consequently reducing its damage. Keywords: Bacillus subtilis B.Ra.217, TYLCV, peroxidase, incidence, severity of infestation, tomato plant

Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Infection in a Monocotyledonous Weed (Eleusine indica)

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is one of the most important plant viruses belonging to the genus Begomovirus of the family Geminiviridae. To identify natural weed hosts that could act as reservoirs of TYLCV, 100 samples were collected at a TYLCV-affected tomato farm in Iksan from 2013 to 2014. The sample weeds were identified as belonging to 40 species from 18 families. TYLCV was detected in 57 samples belonging to 28 species through polymerase chain reaction using root samples including five species (Eleusine indica, Digitaria ciliaris, Echinochloa crus-galli, Panicum dichotomiflorum, and Setaria faberi) from the family Poaceae. Whitefly Bemisia tabaci-mediated TYLCV transmission from TYLCV-infected E. indica plants to healthy tomatoes was confirmed, and inoculated tomatoes showed typical symptoms, such as leaf curling and yellowing. In addition, TYLCV was detected in leaf and root samples of E. indica plants inoculated by both whitefly-mediated transmission using TYLCV-viruliferous whitefly and agro-inoculation using a TYLCV infectious clone. The majority of mastreviruses infect monocotyledonous plants, but there have also been reports of mastreviruses that can infect dicotyledonous plants, such as the chickpea chlorotic dwarf virus. No exception was reported among begomoviruses known as infecting dicots only. This is the first report of TYLCV as a member of the genus Begomovirus infecting monocotyledonous plants.

Small RNA Profiling of Susceptible and Resistant Ty-1 Encoding Tomato Plants Upon Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Infection

Ty-1 presents an atypical dominant resistance gene that codes for an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR) of the gamma class and confers resistance to tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) and other geminiviruses. Tomato lines bearing Ty-1 not only produce relatively higher amounts of viral small interfering (vsi)RNAs, but viral DNA also exhibits a higher amount of cytosine methylation. Whether Ty-1 specifically enhances posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS), leading to a degradation of RNA target molecules and primarily relying on 21–22 nucleotides (nts) siRNAs, and/or transcriptional gene silencing (TGS), leading to the methylation of cytosines within DNA target sequences and relying on 24-nts siRNAs, was unknown. In this study, small RNAs were isolated from systemically TYLCV-infected leaves of Ty-1 encoding tomato plants and susceptible tomato Moneymaker (MM) and sequence analyzed. While in susceptible tomato plants vsiRNAs of the 21-nt size class were predominant, their amount was drastically reduced in tomato containing Ty-1. The latter, instead, revealed elevated levels of vsiRNAs of the 22- and 24-nt size classes. In addition, the genomic distribution profiles of the vsiRNAs were changed in Ty-1 plants compared with those from susceptible MM. In MM three clear hotspots were seen, but these were less pronounced in Ty-1 plants, likely due to enhanced transitive silencing to neighboring viral genomic sequences. The largest increase in the amount of vsiRNAs was observed in the intergenic region and the V1 viral gene. The results suggest that Ty-1 enhances an antiviral TGS response. Whether the elevated levels of 22 nts vsiRNAs contribute to an enhanced PTGS response or an additional TGS response involving a noncanonical pathway of RNA dependent DNA methylation remains to be investigated.

Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) Promotes Plant Tolerance to Drought

A growing body of research points to a positive interplay between viruses and plants. Tomato yellow curl virus (TYLCV) is able to protect tomato host plants against extreme drought. To envisage the use of virus protective capacity in agriculture, TYLCV-resistant tomato lines have to be infected first with the virus before planting. Such virus-resistant tomato plants contain virus amounts that do not cause disease symptoms, growth inhibition, or yield loss, but are sufficient to modify the metabolism of the plant, resulting in improved tolerance to drought. This phenomenon is based on the TYLCV-dependent stabilization of amounts of key osmoprotectants induced by drought (soluble sugars, amino acids, and proteins). Although in infected TYLCV-susceptible tomatoes, stress markers also show an enhanced stability, in infected TYLCV-resistant plants, water balance and osmolyte homeostasis reach particularly high levels. These tomato plants survive long periods of time during water withholding. However, after recovery to normal irrigation, they produce fruits which are not exposed to drought, similarly to the control plants. Using these features, it might be possible to cultivate TYLCV-resistant plants during seasons characterized by water scarcity.