TY - JOUR
T1 - A moderate level of hypovirulence conferred by a hypovirus in the avocado white root rot fungus, Rosellinia necatrix
AU - Arjona-López, Juan M.
AU - Telengech, Paul
AU - Suzuki, Nobuhiro
AU - López-Herrera, Carlos J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by the Plan Nacional I + D + I Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (AGL 2014-52518-C2-2-R) Spain and co-financed by FEDER funds ( EU ) and by Yomogi Inc. and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) and Scientific Research on Innovative Areas from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ( 17H01463 and 16H06436, 16H06429 and 16K21723 to N.S.). The authors are grateful to Mr. Carlos Casanova Muñoz for his technical assistance and to Professor José María Melero Vara for his assistance in the review.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 British Mycological Society
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Two isolates of Rosellinia necatrix (Rn118-8 and Rn480) have previously obtained from diseased avocado trees in commercial orchards of the coastal area in southern Spain. Rn118-8 and Rn480 have weak virulence on avocado plants, and are infected by R. necatrix hypovirus 2 (RnHV2). In this work, the possible biological effects of the hypovirus on R. necatrix were tested. First, RnHV2 was transmitted from each of Rn118-8 and Rn480 to a highly virulent, RnHV2-free isolate of R. necatrix (Rn400) through hyphal anastomosis, using zinc compounds which attenuate the mycelial incompatibility reactions and allow for horizontal virus transfer between vegetatively incompatible fungal strains. Next, we carried out an analysis of growth rate in vitro and a virulence test of these newly infected strains in avocado plants. We obtained five strains of Rn400 infected by RnHV2 after horizontal transmission, and showed some of them to have lower colony growth in vitro and lower virulence on avocado plants compared with virus-free Rn400. These results suggest that R. necatrix isolates infected by RnHV2 could be used as novel virocontrol agents to combat avocado white root rot.
AB - Two isolates of Rosellinia necatrix (Rn118-8 and Rn480) have previously obtained from diseased avocado trees in commercial orchards of the coastal area in southern Spain. Rn118-8 and Rn480 have weak virulence on avocado plants, and are infected by R. necatrix hypovirus 2 (RnHV2). In this work, the possible biological effects of the hypovirus on R. necatrix were tested. First, RnHV2 was transmitted from each of Rn118-8 and Rn480 to a highly virulent, RnHV2-free isolate of R. necatrix (Rn400) through hyphal anastomosis, using zinc compounds which attenuate the mycelial incompatibility reactions and allow for horizontal virus transfer between vegetatively incompatible fungal strains. Next, we carried out an analysis of growth rate in vitro and a virulence test of these newly infected strains in avocado plants. We obtained five strains of Rn400 infected by RnHV2 after horizontal transmission, and showed some of them to have lower colony growth in vitro and lower virulence on avocado plants compared with virus-free Rn400. These results suggest that R. necatrix isolates infected by RnHV2 could be used as novel virocontrol agents to combat avocado white root rot.
KW - Anastomosis
KW - Mycovirus transmission
KW - Persea americana
KW - Virocontrol
KW - Virulence
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U2 - 10.1016/j.funbio.2020.10.007
DO - 10.1016/j.funbio.2020.10.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 33317778
AN - SCOPUS:85096383892
VL - 125
SP - 69
EP - 76
JO - Fungal Biology
JF - Fungal Biology
SN - 1878-6146
IS - 1
ER -
