Profiling plant proteome and transcriptome changes during grapevine fanlead virus infection

Authors: ROY, BRANDON - Cornell University; Deblasio, Stacy; Yang, Yong; Thannhauser, Theodore - Ted; Heck, Michelle; FUCHS, MARK - Cornell University

Submitted to: Journal of Proteome Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/26/2023
Publication Date: 6/2/2023
Citation: Roy, B., Deblasio, S.L., Yang, Y., Thannhauser, T.W., Heck, M.L., Fuchs, M. 2023. Profiling plant proteome and transcriptome changes during grapevine fanlead virus infection. Journal of Proteome Research. 22(6):1997-2017. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.3c00069?urlappend=%3Fref%3DPDF&jav=VoR&rel=cite-as.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.3c00069?urlappend=%3Fref%3DPDF&jav=VoR&rel=cite-as

Interpretive Summary: Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) is the most devastating virus of grapevine. This virus causes severe yield losses (up to 80%) and substantially reduces the productive lifespan of vineyards. GFLV can be mechanically transferred to herbaceous hosts such as Nicotiana benthamiana on which distinct symptoms can develop. Host responses and cellular reprogramming that are induced during GFLV infection, particularly for symptom development, remain largely unknown. In this work, we investigated how plant genes and proteins change their expression during infection with GFLV. We identified a total of 23 proteins and gene candidates involved with GFLV infection. Among these 23, plant tRNA ligases stood out as being very important because they were identified using multiple approaches. The tRNA ligase proteins in plants are crucial for protein production in plants and the research shows they are master regulators in the plant response to GFLV infection. Future research should focus on understanding how tRNA ligases mediate symptom development to develop novel virus disease management strategies.

Technical Abstract: Viruses can elicit varying types and severities of symptoms during host plant infection. We investigated changes in the proteome and transcriptome of Nicotiana benthamiana plants infected by grapevine famleaf virus (GFLV) with an emphasis on vein clearing symptom development. Comparative, time-course LC-MS/MS and 3’RNA-Seq analyses of plants infected by two wildtype GFLV strains, one symptomatic and one asymptomatic, and their asymptomatic mutant strains carrying a single amino acid change in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) were conducted to identify host biochemical pathways involved in viral symptom development. During peak vein clearing symptom observation at seven days post-inoculation (dpi), protein and gene ontologies related to immune response, gene regulation, and secondary metabolite production were overrepresented when contrasting wildtype GFLV strain GHu and mutant GHu-1EPolK802G. Prior to the onset of symptom development at four dpi and when symptoms faded away at 12 dpi, protein and gene ontologies related to chitinase activity, hypersensitive response, and transcriptional regulation were identified. This systems biology approach highlighted how a single amino acid of a plant viral RdRP mediates changes to the host proteome (~1%) and transcriptome (~8.5%) to induce transient vein clearing symptoms, and the network of pathways involved in the virus-host arms race.