PRJNA397572: A viral protein promotes host SAMS1 activity and ethylene production for the benefit of virus infection

Summary: Ethylene plays critical roles in plant development and biotic stress response. However, the mechanism of ethylene in host antiviral response remains unclear. Rice dwarf virus (RDV) triggers the ethylene production resulting in host susceptibility by enhancing the activity of S-adenosyl-L-methionine synthase (SAMS) in ethylene synthesis pathway. Our molecular and genetic data demonstrated that Pns11 specifically interacted with OsSAMS1 to enhance its enzymatic activity, resulting in increased production of ethylene in both Pns11 overexpressing and RDV-infected rice. Treatment of rice plants with ethylene precursor increased their susceptibility to RDV infection. More importantly, knockout of OsSAMS1 (CRISPR/Cas9) or blocking ethylene signaling in an ethylene-insensitive mutant (osein2) decreased susceptibility to RDV infection, and overexpression of OsSAMS1 or Pns11 increased susceptibility. In this study, we have analyzed the relationship between ethylene pathway response and RDV infection or OsSAMS1 and S11 transgene by the gene expression analysis through the RNA-seq.

Overall Design: Comparison between Mock and RDV infected rice, 3 control, 3 RDV-infected, Comparison between WT and OsSAMS1 and S11 transgenic rice , 2 control, 3 OsSAMS1 OX, 3 Ossams1 KO, 3 S11 OX, independently grown and harvested, 1 sample derived from 3 plants grown under same conditions.