Experimental verification of strain-dependent relationship between mycovirus and its fungal host

Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi. Unlike mammalian infectious viruses, their life cycle does not generally have an extracellular stage, and a symbiosis -like relationship is maintained between virus and host fungi. Recently, mycovi-ruses have been reported to show effects on host fungi, altering biological prop-erties such as growth rate, virulence, drug resistance, and metabolite production. In this study, we systematically elucidated the effects of viruses on host cells by comparing host phenotypes and transcriptomic responses in multiple sets of vi-rus-infected and-eliminated Aspergillus flavus strains. The comparative study showed that mycoviruses affect several cellular activities at the molecular level in a virus-and host strain-dependent manner. The virus-swapping experiment re-vealed that difference with only three bases in the virus genome led to different host fungal response at the transcriptional level. Our results highlighted highly specific relationship between viruses and their host fungi.

Automated summary

Mycoviruses have been found to have effects on host fungi, altering cellular activities at the molecular level in a virus-and host strain-dependent manner. The study also revealed that even a difference of only three bases in the virus genome can lead to different transcriptional responses in host fungi. These results highlight the highly specific relationship between viruses and their host fungi.