Apple rubbery wood is a disease of apple found around the world, often associated with Apple flat limb disease, and regulated in many countries. Despite its long history in apple cultivation, the disease’s causal agent has remained elusive. In this study, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to identify and characterize several related novel viral agents from apple rubbery wood-infected plants, which have been named Apple rubbery wood virus (ARWV) 1 and 2. Additional specimens with apple rubbery wood disease tested positive by polymerase chain reaction with primers designed to ARWV 1 and 2 genomic RNA segments. In an NGS-based screening of over 100 Malus and 100 Prunus specimens from a collection of virus-infected trees, only one Malus specimen was found to be infected with ARWV not known to be infected with the disease, which strongly suggests that ARWV is not commonly found in Malus spp. or other fruit trees. The two viruses are most closely related to members of the order Bunyavirales. Three RNA segments (large, medium, and small) were characterized and the viruses likely represent a new genus under the family Phenuiviridae, with a suggested name of Rubodvirus (Rubbery wood virus).
Non-natively folded variants of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), however the relative toxicities of these variants are controversial. Here, we aimed to decipher the relationships between the different SOD1 variants (aggregated, soluble misfolded, soluble total) and the clinical presentation of ALS in the SOD1
G93A
mouse. Using a multi-approach strategy, we found that the CNS regions least affected by disease had the most aggregated SOD1. We also found that the levels of aggregated SOD1 in the spinal cord were inversely correlated with the disease progression. Conversely, in the most affected regions, we observed that there was a high soluble misfolded/soluble total SOD1 ratio. Taken together, these findings suggest that soluble misfolded SOD1 may be the disease driver in ALS, whereas aggregated SOD1 may serve to sequester the toxic species acting in a neuroprotective fashion.
Borrelia burgdorferi
, the causative agent of Lyme disease in humans, is maintained in a complex biphasic life cycle, which alternates between tick and vertebrate hosts. To successfully survive and complete its enzootic cycle,
B
.
burgdorferi
adapts to diverse hosts by regulating genes required for survival in specific environments. Here we describe the first ever use of transposon insertion sequencing (Tn-seq) to identify genes required for
B
.
burgdorferi
survival in its tick host. We found that insertions into 46 genes resulted in a complete loss of recovery of mutants from larval
Ixodes
ticks. Insertions in an additional 56 genes resulted in a >90% decrease in fitness. The screen identified both previously known and new genes important for larval tick survival. Almost half of the genes required for survival in the tick encode proteins of unknown function, while a significant portion (over 20%) encode membrane-associated proteins or lipoproteins. We validated the results of the screen for five Tn mutants by performing individual competition assays using mutant and complemented strains. To better understand the role of one of these genes in tick survival, we conducted mechanistic studies of
bb0017
, a gene previously shown to be required for resistance against oxidative stress. In this study we show that BB0017 affects the regulation of key borrelial virulence determinants. The application of Tn-seq to
in vivo
screening of
B
.
burgdorferi
in its natural vector is a powerful tool that can be used to address many different aspects of the host pathogen interaction.
Blackcurrant leaf chlorosis associated virus (BCLCaV) was isolated from symptomatic blackcurrants (Ribes nigrum cv. Baldwin). The virus has a genome organization similar to that of raspberry bushy dwarf virus (RBDV), the type member of the genus Idaeovirus. The RNA-1of this virus encodes the replicase complex (ORF1, M 197 kDa), while RNA-2 encodes a putative movement protein (ORF2a, M 38.8 kDa) and the putative coat protein (ORF2b, M 30 kDa). A concatenated form of BCLCaV RNA-2 was detected by next-generation sequencing and confirmed by RT-PCR. BCLCaV is a new member of the genus Idaeovirus.
A Ribes-infecting strain of the potexvirus Actinidia virus X (AVX-RV3124) was isolated from black currant plants (Ribes nigrum cv. Baldwin, accession 3124-03D1) showing symptoms of leaf chlorosis and deformity. This is the first description of the complete genome sequence of an isolate of this virus and the first detection of a potexvirus in Ribes. The genome of AVX-RV3124 consists of 6,888 nucleotides (nt) excluding the poly(A) tail at the 3' terminus. When AVX-RV3124 was compared to the available sequence of the AVX isolate in GenBank (accession no. KC568202), two large indel events (72 nt and 33 nt) were identified in the replicase coding region of RV3124. Evidence of recombination was detected upstream of the 3' terminus of the replicase gene of both virus isolates, providing further evidence of a common origin.
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