New insights into RNA mycoviruses of fungal pathogens causing Fusarium head blight

Fusarium head blight (FHB) continues to be a major problem in wheat production and is considered a disease complex caused by several fungal pathogens including Fusarium culmorum, F. graminearum and F. equiseti. With the objective of investigating diversity of mycoviruses in FHB-associated pathogens, we isolated Fusarium spp. from six wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars. In total, 56 Fusarium isolates (29 F. culmorum, 24 F. graminearum, one F. equiseti) were screened for mycoviruses by extracting and sequencing double-stranded RNA. We found that a large proportion of Fusarium isolates (46 %) were infected with mycoviruses. F. culmorum, previously described to harbor only one mycovirus, tended to host more viruses than F. graminearum, with a few isolates harboring seven mycoviruses simultaneously. Based on the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domain analysis, ten were positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses (related to viruses from families Mitoviridae, Botourmiaviridae, Narnaviridae, Tymoviridae, Gammaflexiviridae, as well as proposed Ambiguiviridae and ormycovirus viral group), one was double-stranded RNA virus (Partitiviridae), and five were negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses (related to members in the families of Yueviridae, Phenuiviridae, Mymonaviridae, as well as proposed Mycoaspiviridae). Five mycoviruses were shared between F. graminearum and F. culmorum. These results increase our general understanding of mycovirology. To our knowledge, this is the first in-depth report of the mycovirome in F. culmorum and the first report on the diversity of mycoviruses from Danish isolates of FHB-causing fungi in general.

Transmission of mycoviruses: new possibilities

Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi. In recent years, an increasing number of mycoviruses have been reported in a wide array of fungi. With the growing interest of scientists and society in reducing the use of agrochemicals, the debate about mycoviruses as an effective next-generation biocontrol has regained momentum. Mycoviruses can have profound effects on the host phenotype, although most viruses have neutral or no effect. We speculate that understanding multiple transmission modes of mycoviruses is central to unraveling the viral ecology and their function in regulating fungal populations. Unlike plant virus transmission via vegetative plant parts, seeds, pollen, or vectors, a widely held view is that mycoviruses are transmitted via vertical routes and only under special circumstances horizontally via hyphal contact depending on the vegetative compatibility groups (i.e., the ability of different fungal strains to undergo hyphal fusion). However, this view has been challenged over the past decades, as new possible transmission routes of mycoviruses are beginning to unravel. In this perspective, we discuss emerging studies with evidence suggesting that such novel routes of mycovirus transmission exist and are pertinent to understanding the full picture of mycovirus ecology and evolution.

An Overview of Mycoviral Curing Strategies Used in Evaluating Fungal Host Fitness

The number of novel mycoviruses is increasing at a high pace due to advancements in sequencing technologies. As a result, an uncountable number of mycoviral sequences are available in public sequence repositories. However, only genomic information is not sufficient to understand the impact of mycoviruses on their host biology. Biological characterization is required to determine the nature of mycoviruses (cryptic, hypervirulent, or hypovirulent) and to search for mycoviruses with biocontrol and therapeutic potential. Currently, no particular selective method is used as the gold standard against these mycoviral infections. Given the importance of curing, we present an overview of procedures used in preparation of isogenic lines, along with their benefits and drawbacks. We concluded that a combination of single-spore isolation and hyphal tipping is the best fit for preparation of isogenic lines. Furthermore, recent bioinformatic approaches should be introduced in the field of mycovirology to predict virus-specific antivirals to get robust results.

Mycoviruses as a part of the global virome: Diversity, evolutionary links and lifestyle

Knowledge of mycovirus diversity, evolution, horizontal gene transfer and shared ancestry with viruses infecting distantly related hosts, such as plants and arthropods, has increased vastly during the last few years due to advances in the high throughput sequencing methodologies. This also has enabled the discovery of novel mycoviruses with previously unknown genome types, mainly new positive and negative single-stranded RNA mycoviruses ((+) ssRNA and (-) ssRNA) and single-stranded DNA mycoviruses (ssDNA), and has increased our knowledge of double-stranded RNA mycoviruses (dsRNA), which in the past were thought to be the most common viruses infecting fungi. Fungi and oomycetes (Stramenopila) share similar lifestyles and also have similar viromes. Hypothesis about the origin and cross-kingdom transmission events of viruses have been raised and are supported by phylogenetic analysis and by the discovery of natural exchange of viruses between different hosts during virus-fungus coinfection in planta. In this review we make a compilation of the current information on the genome organization, diversity and taxonomy of mycoviruses, discussing their possible origins. Our focus is in recent findings suggesting the expansion of the host range of many viral taxa previously considered to be exclusively fungal, but we also address factors affecting virus transmissibility and coexistence in single fungal or oomycete isolates, as well as the development of synthetic mycoviruses and their use in investigating mycovirus replication cycles and pathogenicity.

Engineering super mycovirus donor strains of chestnut blight fungus by systematic disruption of multilocus vic genes

Transmission of mycoviruses that attenuate virulence (hypovirulence) of pathogenic fungi is restricted by allorecognition systems operating in their fungal hosts. We report the use of systematic molecular gene disruption and classical genetics for engineering fungal hosts with superior virus transmission capabilities. Four of five diallelic virus-restricting allorecognition [vegetative incompatibility (vic)] loci were disrupted in the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica using an adapted Cre-loxP recombination system that allowed excision and recycling of selectable marker genes (SMGs). SMG-free, quadruple vic mutant strains representing both allelic backgrounds of the remaining vic locus were then produced through mating. In combination, these super donor strains were able to transmit hypoviruses to strains that were heteroallelic at one or all of the virus-restricting vic loci. These results demonstrate the feasibility of modulating allorecognition to engineer pathogenic fungi for more efficient transmission of virulence-attenuating mycoviruses and enhanced biological control potential.

The European race of Gremmeniella abietina hosts a single species of Gammapartitivirus showing a global distribution and possible recombinant events in its history

The population genetics of the family Partitiviridae was studied within the European race of the conifer pathogen Gremmeniella abietina. One hundred sixty-two isolates were collected from different countries, including Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. A unique species of G. abietina RNA virus-MS1 (GaRV-MS1) appears to occur indistinctly in G. abietina biotypes A and B, without a particular geographical distribution pattern. Forty-six isolates were shown to host GaRV-MS1 according to direct specific RT-PCR screening, and the virus was more common in biotype A than B. Phylogenetic analysis based on 46 partial coat protein (CP) cDNA sequences divided the GaRV-MS1 population into two closely related clades, while RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) sequences revealed only one clade. The evolution of the virus appears to mainly occur through purifying selection but also through recombination. Recombination events were detected within alignments of the three complete CP and RdRp sequences of GaRV-MS1. This is the first time that recombination events have been directly identified in fungal partitiviruses and in G. abietina in particular. The results suggest that the population dynamics of GaRV-MS1 do not have a direct impact on the genetic structure of its host, G. abietina, though they might have had an innocuous ancestral relationship.

An Andean origin of Phytophthora infestans inferred from mitochondrial and nuclear gene genealogies

Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary caused the 19th century Irish Potato Famine. We assessed the genealogical history of P. infestans using sequences from portions of two nuclear genes (beta-tubulin and Ras) and several mitochondrial loci P3, (rpl14, rpl5, tRNA) and P4 (Cox1) from 94 isolates from South, Central, and North America, as well as Ireland. Summary statistics, migration analyses and the genealogy of current populations of P. infestans for both nuclear and mitochondrial loci are consistent with an "out of South America" origin for P. infestans. Mexican populations of P. infestans from the putative center of origin in Toluca Mexico harbored less nucleotide and haplotype diversity than Andean populations. Coalescent-based genealogies of all loci were congruent and demonstrate the existence of two lineages leading to present day haplotypes of P. infestans on potatoes. The oldest lineage associated with isolates from the section Anarrhichomenun including Solanum tetrapetalum from Ecuador was identified as Phytophthora andina and evolved from a common ancestor of P. infestans. Nuclear and mitochondrial haplotypes found in Toluca Mexico were derived from only one of the two lineages, whereas haplotypes from Andean populations in Peru and Ecuador were derived from both lineages. Haplotypes found in populations from the U.S. and Ireland was derived from both ancestral lineages that occur in South America suggesting a common ancestry among these populations. The geographic distribution of mutations on the rooted gene genealogies demonstrate that the oldest mutations in P. infestans originated in South America and are consistent with a South American origin.