Arabidopsis is Susceptible to Rice stripe virus Infections

Rice stripe virus (RSV), a member of the genus Tenuivirus, causes rice stripe disease in East Asia and is one of the most economically important rice pathogens. The pathogenesis of RSV and the molecular basis of plant responses to the pathogen are poorly understood. We investigated the process of RSV infection in Arabidopsis thaliana which is highly susceptible to the virus. A simple inoculation method using viruliferous small brown planthoppers was developed to infect A. thaliana plants with RSV. The symptoms were developed within 2 weeks of inoculation. One month after inoculation, all infected plants showed stunted growth and vein chlorosis in newly emerged leaves. Forty-five days after inoculation, RSV-infected plants showed severely stunted growth and distorted flower stalks. RSV replication in A. thaliana was confirmed using a dot immunobinding assay, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and a protein gel blot assay. RSV infection strongly induced PR1, PR2 and GST1 but not PDF1.2 expression, indicating that the pathogen activated salicylic acid-dependent basal defence mechanism, which is consistent with the characteristics of plant RNA virus. This Arabidopsis-RSV pathosystem provides an approach for analysing interactions between RSV and plants.