TY - JOUR
T1 - How virulent are emerging maize-infecting mastreviruses?
AU - Oyeniran, Kehinde A.
AU - Hartnady, Penelope
AU - Claverie, Sohini
AU - Lefeuvre, Pierre
AU - Monjane, Adérito L.
AU - Donaldson, Lara
AU - Lett, Jean Michel
AU - Varsani, Arvind
AU - Martin, Darren P.
N1 - Funding Information:
KAO was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa and The World Academy of Science (TWAS) Grant number 105461. SC, PL and J-ML were supported by the European Union (ERDF, contract GURDT I2016-1731-0006632), the Conseil Régional de La Réunion, the Agropolis Fondation (Labex Agro—Montpellier, E-SPACE project number 1504-004) and CIRAD. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, or interpretation or in the decision to submit the work for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, AT part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Maize streak disease (MSD) is one of the most significant biotic constraints on the production of Africa’s most important cereal crop. Until recently, the only virus known to cause severe MSD was the A-strain of maize streak virus (MSV/A), a member of the genus Mastrevirus, family Geminiviridae. However, over the past decade, two other mastreviruses, MSV/C and maize streak Réunion virus (MSRV), have been repeatedly found in the absence of MSV/A in maize plants displaying severe MSD symptoms. Here, we report on infectious clones of MSV/C and MSRV and test their ability to cause severe MSD symptoms. Although cloned MSV/C and MSRV genomes could cause systemic symptomatic infections in MSD-sensitive maize genotypes, these infections yielded substantially milder symptoms than those observed in the field. The MSV/C and MSRV isolates that we have examined are therefore unlikely to cause severe MSD on their own. Furthermore, mixed infections of MSRV and MSV/C with other mild MSV strains also consistently yielded mild MSD symptoms. It is noteworthy that MSRV produces distinctive striate symptoms in maize that are similar in pattern, albeit not in severity, to those seen in the field, showing that this virus may contribute to the severe MSD symptoms seen in the field. Therefore, despite not fulfilling Koch’s postulates for MSV/C and MSRV as causal agents of severe MSD, we cannot exclude the possibility that these viruses could be contributing to currently emerging maize diseases.
AB - Maize streak disease (MSD) is one of the most significant biotic constraints on the production of Africa’s most important cereal crop. Until recently, the only virus known to cause severe MSD was the A-strain of maize streak virus (MSV/A), a member of the genus Mastrevirus, family Geminiviridae. However, over the past decade, two other mastreviruses, MSV/C and maize streak Réunion virus (MSRV), have been repeatedly found in the absence of MSV/A in maize plants displaying severe MSD symptoms. Here, we report on infectious clones of MSV/C and MSRV and test their ability to cause severe MSD symptoms. Although cloned MSV/C and MSRV genomes could cause systemic symptomatic infections in MSD-sensitive maize genotypes, these infections yielded substantially milder symptoms than those observed in the field. The MSV/C and MSRV isolates that we have examined are therefore unlikely to cause severe MSD on their own. Furthermore, mixed infections of MSRV and MSV/C with other mild MSV strains also consistently yielded mild MSD symptoms. It is noteworthy that MSRV produces distinctive striate symptoms in maize that are similar in pattern, albeit not in severity, to those seen in the field, showing that this virus may contribute to the severe MSD symptoms seen in the field. Therefore, despite not fulfilling Koch’s postulates for MSV/C and MSRV as causal agents of severe MSD, we cannot exclude the possibility that these viruses could be contributing to currently emerging maize diseases.
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U2 - 10.1007/s00705-020-04906-x
DO - 10.1007/s00705-020-04906-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 33502595
AN - SCOPUS:85099828762
SN - 0304-8608
VL - 166
SP - 955
EP - 959
JO - Archives of virology
JF - Archives of virology
IS - 3
ER -