Purpose The objective of this investigation was to determine the in vitro effect of two common digestive enzymes, amylase and pepsin, and pH on the integrity of the RI dsRNA of bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV) and Cucumis melo endornavirus (CmEV) evaluated by gel electrophoresis and reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR). Methods We conducted experiments on the in vitro effect of two common digestive enzymes, amylase and pepsin, and pH on the structural integrity of the replicative intermediate (RI) dsRNA of bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV) and Cucumis melo endornavirus (CmEV), evaluated by gel electrophoresis and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Result The effect of the amylase, pepsin, and pH treatments on the dsRNA of both viruses was similar. Amylase did not appear to affect the structural integrity of the dsRNA. In contrast, gel electrophoresis analysis of pepsin-treated dsRNA samples showed an abnormal electrophoretic migration and evidence of partial dsRNA degradation. DsRNAs from both fruits were partially degraded when exposed to a pH value of 2.0 and completely degraded at a pH value of 1.0. Conclusion The results of this investigation suggest that when exposed to pepsin and pH values lower than 2.0, the RI of BPEV and CmEV lose their structural integrity. Therefore, when consuming endornavirus-infected bell pepper or melon, our digestive organs are exposed to both fragmented and full RI dsRNA of these two viruses.
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