Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) induction is one of the primary defence mechanisms of plants against a broad range of pathogens. It can be induced by infectious agents or by synthetic molecules, such as benzo(1,2,3)-thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid S-methyl ester (BTH). SAR induction is associated with increases in salicylic acid (SA) accumulation and expression of defence marker genes (e.g., phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), the pathogenesis-related (PR) protein family, and non-expressor of PR genes (NPR1)). Various types of pathogens and pests induce plant responses by activating signalling pathways associated with SA, jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET). This work presents an analysis of the influence of BTH and its derivatives as resistance inducers in healthy and virus-infected plants by determining the expression levels of selected resistance markers associated with the SA, JA, and ET pathways. The phytotoxic effects of these compounds and their influence on the course of viral infection were also studied. Based on the results obtained, the best-performing BTH derivatives and their optimal concentration for plant performance were selected, and their mode of action was suggested. It was shown that application of BTH and its derivatives induces increased expression of marker genes of both the SA- and JA-mediated pathways.

Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged viruses are basic research tools widely applied in studies concerning molecular determinants of disease during virus infection. Here, we described a new generation of genetically stable infectious clones of tomato torrado virus isolate Kra (ToTV_pJL-Kra) that could infect Nicotiana benthamiana and Solanum lycopersicum. Importantly, a modified variant of the viral RNA2—with inserted sGFP (forming, together with virus RNA1, into ToTV_pJL-Kra_GFP)—was engineered as well. RNA2 of ToTV_pJL-Kra_GFP was modified by introducing an additional open reading frame (ORF) of sGFP flanked with an amino acid-coding sequence corresponding to the putative virus protease recognition site. Our further analysis revealed that sGFP-tagged ToTV-Kra was successfully passaged by mechanical inoculation and spread systemically in plants. Therefore, the clone might be applied in studying the in vivo cellular, tissue, and organ-level localization of ToTV during infection. By performing whole-plant imaging, followed by fluorescence and confocal microscopy, the presence of the ToTV_pJL-Kra_GFP-derived fluorescence signal was confirmed in infected plants. All this information was verified by sGFP-specific immunoprecipitation and western blot analysis. The molecular biology of the torradovirus-plant interaction is still poorly characterized; therefore, the results obtained here opened up new possibilities for further research. The application of sGFP-tagged virus infectious clones and their development method can be used for analyzing plant-virus interactions in a wide context of plant pathology.

Tomato torrado virus (ToTV) infection manifests with burn-like symptoms on leaves, leaflets and upper stem parts of susceptible infected plants. The symptoms caused by ToTV may be considered as one of the most severe virus-induced forms of systemic necrosis, which spreads within the whole plant and leads to a lethal phenotype. However, to date there are no data revealing which viral genes encode for a specific pathogenicity determinant that triggers the plant necrotic response for any torradovirus. In this study we evaluated the influence of three coat protein subunits of ToTV: Vp23, Vp26 and Vp35, transiently expressed from a PVX-based vector, and checked their association with the induction of systemic necrosis in infected Solanum lycopersicum L. (cv. Beta Lux), a natural host of ToTV. To estimate how ToTV coat protein subunits might contribute in plant response to virus infection we over-expressed the proteins from PVX-based vector in tomato and analyzed enzymatic activities related with plant defense response. By doing protein qualitative analysis performed by mass spectrometry we indicated the PR10 in protein fraction with induced ribonuclease activity. We observed that only the Vp26 enhanced PVX pathogenicity causing severe necrosis of the infected plant. Moreover, we indicated increased RNase and oxidative activities in plants infected with PVX-Vp26 chimeras only. Importantly, we suspected that this increased RNase activity is associated with increased accumulation of PR10 mRNA and products of its translation. On the basis of the obtained results, we indicated that Vp26 acts as the elicitor of hypersensitive response-like reactions of PVX-Vp26 manifesting with enhanced pathogenicity of the recombined PVX. This might be the first described suspected necrosis determinant of torradoviruses infecting tomatoes.

Wheat production is threatened by the destructive effects of numerous pests, including Oulema melanopus (cereal leaf beetle, CLB). Both adults and larvae of CLB damage grain crops, but the target of insecticide treatments are the larvae. Insect-associated bacteria are important for many of the insects’ life processes and may also modulate plant defense responses to feeding of their insect host. The aim of our study was to elucidate the early wheat plants’ reaction to this herbivore feeding and to disclose the CLB-associated bacteria modulation of the wheat-insect interactions. Transcriptome analyses were performed for the leaves wounded mechanically and by feeding of the CLB larvae as well as for the distal leaves to study both, the plant’s local and systemic response. Comparative transcriptome analysis indicated that 24 h after the plant treatment, a much larger number of up-regulated DEGs in damaged leaves was noted, especially those on which larvae were fed. It may suggest that at the analysed time point, the local response was stronger than the systemic one. In the leaves on which larvae with natural bacterial flora were fed (local response), the number of up- and down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was 7136 and 7411, respectively, in comparison to the dataset obtained for the leaves wounded by larvae with a reduced number of bacteria. In the distal leaves, 3015 up- and 2372 down-regulated DEGs were noted. CLB-associated bacteria were found to affect many aspects of the physiology of wheat plants, especially in wounded leaves, including the expression of genes related to primary metabolism, phytohormone signaling and photosynthesis. We also observed that CLB-associated bacteria mitigated numerous anti-herbivore processes and pathways associated with the synthesis of metabolites and proteins, potentially harmful to the insects. The bacteria also reversed the expression of some genes involved, inter alia, in the phosphorylation of proteins, oxidative stress, cell wall organization, and biogenesis. Understanding the role of CLB-associated bacteria in the plant’s defense response will be important to the fields of pest control and herbivore and its host ecology and evolution.

In this paper, we describe two independent isolates of a new member of the subfamily Autographivirinae, Pseudomonas phage KNP. The type strain (KNP) has a linear, 40,491-bp-long genome with GC content of 57.3%, and 50 coding DNA sequences (CDSs). The genome of the second strain (WRT) contains one CDS less, encodes a significantly different tail fiber protein and is shorter (40,214 bp; GC content, 57.4%). Phylogenetic analysis indicates that both KNP and WRT belong to the genus T7virus. Together with genetically similar Pseudomonas phages (gh-1, phiPSA2, phiPsa17, PPPL-1, shl2, phi15, PPpW-4, UNO-SLW4, phiIBB-PF7A, Pf-10, and Phi-S1), they form a divergent yet coherent group that stands apart from the T7-like viruses (sensu lato). Analysis of the diversity of this group and its relatedness to other members of the subfamily Autographivirinae led us to the conclusion that this group might be considered as a candidate for a new genus.