Autophagy functions as an antiviral mechanism against geminiviruses in plants.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28244873.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.23897 and PMC identifier 5362266.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process that recycles damaged or unwanted cellular components, and has been linked to plant immunity. However, how autophagy contributes to plant immunity is unknown. Here we reported that the plant autophagic machinery targets the virulence factor βC1 of <i>Cotton leaf curl Multan virus</i> (CLCuMuV) for degradation through its interaction with the key autophagy protein ATG8. A V32A mutation in βC1 abolished its interaction with NbATG8f, and virus carrying βC1<sup>V32A</sup> showed increased symptoms and viral DNA accumulation in plants. Furthermore, silencing of autophagy-related genes <i>ATG5</i> and <i>ATG7</i> reduced plant resistance to the DNA viruses CLCuMuV, <i>Tomato yellow leaf curl virus</i>, and <i>Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus</i>, whereas activating autophagy by silencing <i>GAPC</i> genes enhanced plant resistance to viral infection. Thus, autophagy represents a novel anti-pathogenic mechanism that plays an important role in antiviral immunity in plants.
Medical subject headings
- Autophagy
- Geminiviridae
- Nicotiana