Study of Mastreviruses and Their Plant Hosts
Author Information
Author(s): Wu Beilei, Melcher Ulrich, Guo Xingyi, Wang Xifeng, Fan Longjiang, Zhou Guanghe
Primary Institution: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Hypothesis
Mastreviruses have codiverged with their monocotyledonous hosts over 50 million years of evolution.
Conclusion
The study supports the hypothesis of codivergence for Wheat dwarf virus, Barley dwarf virus, and Oat dwarf virus, but not for Maize streak virus and other African streak viruses.
Supporting Evidence
- The analysis of 28 genomes supports the designation of wheat, barley, and oat mastrevirus isolates as separate species.
- Relative divergence times for the viruses are proportional to divergence times of their hosts.
- Considerable diversity among Chinese isolates was found, concentrated in specific genomic regions.
- Two probable recombination events were detected in Chinese WDV isolates.
- The study calculated an evolutionary rate of 10-8 substitutions per site per year.
Takeaway
This study looks at how certain plant viruses have evolved alongside their host plants, showing that some viruses have changed together with their plants over millions of years.
Methodology
The full genomes of 28 isolates of Wheat dwarf virus were sequenced and analyzed alongside 18 other mastrevirus genomes.
Limitations
The molecular clock has not been uniformly ticking in all lineages, which complicates the conclusions about codivergence.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.05
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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