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The dsRNA mycovirus ChNRV1 causes mild hypervirulence in the fungal phytopathogen Colletotrichum higginsianum

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Abstract

The genus Colletotrichum comprises a large number of filamentous fungi responsible for anthracnose diseases in many tropical and subtropical fruits and vegetables. In particular, Colletotrichum higginsianum infects Brassicaceae species, including Arabidopsis. The C. higginsianum strain IMI349063A is naturally infected with a dsRNA virus, named Colletorichum higginsianum non-segmented virus (ChNRV1). Here, we investigated the biological effect of ChNRV1 in C. higginsianum by comparing strains with and without the virus. ChNRV1 does not have an effect on C. higginsianum growth under salt and cell-wall stress conditions. However, thermal stress reduced C. higginsianum growth rate, this effect being more evident in the wild-type C. higginsianum strain containing the virus. Although ChNRV1 had no effect in conidiation, conidia were narrower when the virus is present. More importantly, ChNRV1 causes a mild increase in C. higginsianum virulence (hypervirulence) when infecting Arabidopsis plants. These findings indicated that, whereas the ChNRV1 mycovirus does not impair growth and conidiation of C. higginsianum, it confers hypervirulence to the fungal host. These findings will help in future research on the effect of mycoviral infection on pathogenic fungi in plant species of agronomical relevance.

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Abbreviations

ChNRV1:

Colletotrichum higginsianum non-segmented dsRNA virus 1

dpi:

Days post-infection

ds:

Double stranded

ss:

Single stranded

SAR:

Systemic acquired resistance

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dra. Blanca San Segundo for critical reading of the manuscript. SC was supported by a Marie Curie fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF-273512). This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-101275-B-I00). We also acknowledge support from the CERCA Programme (“Generalitat de Catalunya”), and the “Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” 2016-2019 (SEV‐2015‐0533).

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Correspondence to Sonia Campo.

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Communicated by Erko stackebrandt.

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Olivé, M., Campo, S. The dsRNA mycovirus ChNRV1 causes mild hypervirulence in the fungal phytopathogen Colletotrichum higginsianum. Arch Microbiol 203, 241–249 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-020-02030-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-020-02030-7

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