Maruthi, Midatharahally Narasegowda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-866X and Moller, Svenning (2025) Viral and host factors involved in host gain and host loss by tomato leaf curl begomoviruses in tomato and cucumbers. Molecular Plant Pathology. ISSN 1464-6722 (Print), 1364-3703 (Online) (In Press)

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Abstract

Begomoviruses transmitted by whiteflies cause severe crop losses worldwide. Individual strains or isolates have a narrower host range, but collectively begomoviruses infect a wide range of plants. Begomovirus genomes undergo frequent recombination and mutations that confer a selective advantage in interactions with specific host factors facilitating host range adaptation, resulting in rapid emergence of new strains with adapted host range. In this study we examine the processes by which the begomoviruses can acquire and lose hosts by exchanging fragments of the viral genomes between a variant of tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus only infecting cucumber (ToLCNDV-C), tomato leaf curl Karnataka virus only infecting tomato (ToLCKV-T), and a ToLCNDV strain infecting both tomato and cucumber (ToLCNDV-T&C). We map the region responsible for tomato host loss to be a 63 nucleotide (nt) region in the C-terminal of the transcriptional activator/ replication enhancer protein (TrAP/REn) regions of ToLCNDV. We test known host proteins reported to interact with this region using yeast two hybrid approach and find divergence in interactions with host proteins PCNA and AGO1. Finally, we find that the TrAP/REn region of DNA-A in conjunction with DNA-B can confer ToLCKV-T the ability to weakly infect its non-host, cucumber and ToLCNDV-C to infect its non-host tomato. Our studies reveal that multiple complex intra-virus interactions between viral proteins and virus-host interactions govern infectivity, virus accumulation, and symptom severity.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Begomovirus evolution, tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus, virus host range determining factors, Solanum lycopersicum L. (tomato), Cucumis sativus L. (cucumber)
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QK Botany Q Science > QR Microbiology > QR355 Virology
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Sustainable Agriculture 4 One Health Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Sustainable Agriculture 4 One Health > Plant Disease & Vectors
Last Modified:	27 Feb 2026 09:52
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/52563

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