Molecular and Biological Characterization of an Isolate of Fusarium Graminearum DsRNA Mycovirus 4 (FgV4) from a New Host

Overview

Journal Microorganisms

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2025 Feb 26

PMID 40005784

Authors

Guoping Ma

Yueli Zhang

Liguo Ma

Kai Cui

Bo Zhang

Hang Jiang

Kai Qi

Junshan Qi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Wheat Fusarium crown rot (FCR), mainly caused by , is one of the most important diseases. Some mycoviruses are reported to have a hypovirulence trait and considered as a biocontrol agent for plant fungal diseases. In most cases, mycovirus biological effects have not been explored clearly. In this study, we identified and characterized a novel isolate of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) mycovirus, Fusarium graminearum dsRNA mycovirus 4 (FgV4), from a new host, an isolate WC9-2 of . The genome of FgV4-WC9-2 includes two dsRNA segments of 2194 bp and 1738 bp. FgV4-WC9-2 dsRNA1 contains a single open reading frame (ORF1), which encodes a protein of 675 amino acids (aa) and has a conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domain. FgV4-WC9-2 dsRNA2 contains two discontinuous ORFs (ORF2-1 and ORF2-2) that code for hypothetical proteins with unknown function. Biological characteristics research has shown that FgV4-WC9-2 infection did not change the colony morphology, but it could significantly decrease colony growth rate. FgV4-WC9-2 could also reduce the sporulation ability, change the conidia size and reduce the pathogenicity of the host to a certain extent. This study is the first to describe a hypovirulence-associated orthocurvulavirus infecting , which has the potential to assist with FCR disease biological management.

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