Transcriptomic and functional analyses reveal an antiviral role of autophagy during pepper mild mottle virus infection
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Transcriptomic and functional analyses reveal an antiviral role of autophagy during pepper mild mottle virus infection Yubing Jiao1†, Mengnan An1†, Xiaodong Li2, Man Yu1, Xiuxiang Zhao1, Zihao Xia1*
and Yuanhua Wu1*
Abstract Background: Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) is a member in the genus Tobamovirus and infects mainly solanaceous plants. However, the mechanism of virus-host interactions remains unclear. To explore the responses of pepper plants to PMMoV infection, we analyzed the transcriptomic changes in pepper plants after PMMoV infection using a high-throughput RNA sequencing approach and explored the roles of host autophagy in regulating PMMoV infection. Results: A total of 197 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained after PMMoV infection, including 172 significantly up-regulated genes and 25 down-regulated genes. The Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses revealed that most up-regulated DEGs were involved in plant abiotic and biotic stresses. Further analyses showed the expressions of multiple autophagy-related genes (ATGs) were increased after PMMoV infection in pepper and Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Through confocal microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, we have found that PMMoV infection in plant can induce autophagy, evidenced by the increased number of GFP-ATG8a fluorescent punctate and the appearance of double membrane autophagic structures in cells of N. benthamiana. Additionally, inhibition of autophagy significantly increased PMMoV RNA accumulation and aggravated systemic PMMoV symptoms through autophagy inhibitor (3-MA and E64d) treatment and silencing of NbATG expressions by a Tobacco rattle virus-induced gene silencing assays. These results indicated that autophagy played a positive role in plant resistance to PMMoV infection. Conclusions: Taken together, our results provide a transcriptomic insight into pepper responding to PMMoV infection and reveal that autophagy induced by PMMoV infection has an antiviral role in regulating PMMoV infection. These results also help us to better understand the mechanism controlling PMMoV infection in plants and to develop better strategies for breeding projects for virus-resistant crops. Keywords: Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), Pepper, Transcriptomic analysis, Autophagy, Nicotiana benthamiana, Defense response
* Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] † Yubing Jiao and Mengnan An contributed equally to this work. 1 College of Plant Protection, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
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