Large Bottleneck Size in Cauliflower Mosaic Virus Populations during Host Plant Colonization
2008

Cauliflower Mosaic Virus and Host Plant Colonization

Sample size: 50 publication Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Monsion Baptiste, Froissart Rémy, Michalakis Yannis, Blanc Stéphane

Primary Institution: UMR BGPI, INRA-CIRAD-SupAgroM, Montpellier, France

Hypothesis

Can the effective population size of Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) during host plant colonization be accurately estimated?

Conclusion

The study found that the effective population size of CaMV during host plant colonization is significantly larger than previously reported for other plant viruses.

Supporting Evidence

  • The effective population size of CaMV during colonization was estimated to be several hundreds of viral genomes.
  • This value is about 100-fold higher than that reported for any other plant virus investigated so far.
  • The study suggests that severe bottlenecks during host colonization do not necessarily apply to all plant-infecting viruses.

Takeaway

This study shows that the Cauliflower mosaic virus can have a large number of copies when it infects a plant, which helps it spread better than some other viruses.

Methodology

The researchers co-inoculated several genetic variants of CaMV into multiple host plants and monitored their frequency during systemic infection.

Limitations

The study primarily focused on CaMV and may not generalize to all plant viruses.

Participant Demographics

Turnip plants (Brassica rapa var. 'Just Right') were used for the experiments.

Statistical Information

Confidence Interval

180–5034 for NV; 184–1909 for NF

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1371/journal.ppat.1000174

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