Cucumber mosaic virus infection as a potential selective pressure on Arabidopsis thaliana populations

Abstract

It has been proposed that in wild ecosystems viruses are often plant mutualists, whereas agroecosystems favour pathogenicity. We seek evidence for virus pathogenicity in wild ecosystems through the analysis of plant-virus coevolution, which requires a negative effect of infection on the host fitness. We focus on the interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), which is significant in nature. We studied the genetic diversity of A. thaliana for two defence traits, resistance and tolerance, to CMV. A set of 185 individuals collected in 76 A. thaliana Iberian wild populations were inoculated with different CMV strains. Resistance was estimated from the level of virus multiplication in infected plants, and tolerance from the effect of infection on host progeny production. Resistance and tolerance to CMV showed substantial genetic variation within and between host populations, and depended on the virus x host genotype interaction, two conditions for coevolution. Resistance and tolerance were co-occurring independent traits that have evolved independently from related life-history traits involved in adaptation to climate. The comparison of the genetic structure for resistance and tolerance with that for neutral traits ( Q _ST / F _ST analyses) indicated that both defence traits are likely under uniform selection. These results strongly suggest that CMV infection selects for defence on A. thaliana populations, and support plant-virus coevolution. Thus, we propose that CMV infection reduces host fitness under the field conditions of the wild A. thaliana populations studied.

Author summary

Plant-virus coevolution has not been demonstrated in any wild system, and it has been proposed that viruses often would be mutualistic symbionts, rather than pathogens, in wild plant ecosystems. We analyse if viruses are virulent pathogens of plants in wild ecosystems and, consequently, plants have evolved defences against virus infection. To test this hypothesis, we studied the genetic diversity of Arabidopsis thaliana for two defence traits, resistance and tolerance, to Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) at a regional scale in the Iberian Peninsula. Resistance and tolerance to CMV showed substantial genetic variation within and between host populations, and depended on the virus x host genotype interaction, two conditions for coevolution. Resistance and tolerance were independent traits that co-occurred at the population and regional scales, and that have evolved independently from other adaptive life-history traits. Analyses also indicated that resistance and tolerance are likely under selection, most likely due to virus infection. These results support a hypothesis of plant-virus coevolution and contribute to demonstrate that plant viruses may be virulent parasites of plants in wild ecosystems.