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The Abscisic Acid Pathway Has Multifaceted Effects on the Accumulation of Bamboo mosaic virus

February 2014 , Volume 27 , Number  2
Pages  177 - 189

Mazen Alazem,1,2,3 Kuan-Yu Lin,1 and Na-Sheng Lin1,2,4

1Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan, ROC; 2Molecular and Biological Agricultural Sciences Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, National Chung-Hsing University and Academia Sinica; 3Graduate Institute of Biotechnology, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan, ROC; 4Biotechnology Center, National Chung-Hsing University


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Accepted 29 October 2013.
Accepted 29 October 2013.

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a key role in modulating plant responses to different biotic and abiotic stresses. However, the effect of ABA on virus infection is not fully understood. Here, we describe the effects of the ABA pathway on the accumulation of Bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV) and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) in two different hosts: Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana. We report that ABA2 plays a critical role in the accumulation of BaMV and CMV. Mutants downstream of ABA2 (aao3, abi1-1, abi3-1, and abi4-1) were susceptible to BaMV, indicating that the ABA pathway downstream of ABA2 is essential for BaMV resistance. The aba2-1 mutant decreased the accumulation of BaMV (+)RNA, (–)RNA, and coat protein, with the most dramatic effect being observed for (–)RNA. These findings were further validated by the use of virus-induced gene silencing and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in N. benthamiana. In addition, infecting N. benthamiana with BaMV or CMV increased ABA contents and activated the SA and ABA pathways, thereby disrupting the antagonism between these two cascades. Our findings uncover a novel role for ABA2 in supporting BaMV and CMV accumulation, distinct from the opposing role of its downstream genes.



© 2014 The American Phytopathological Society