Genotoxicity of barley stripe mosaic virus in infected host plants

Abstract

A comparative study of the effect of barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) and gamma irradiation on mitotic divisions in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) roots was performed by evaluating the mitotic index (MI), micronucleus (MN) frequency and sister chromatid exchanges (SCE). Results indicate that, similarly to gamma irradiation at doses of 100, 150 and 250 Gy, BSMV reduces the mitotic activity, increases the micronucleus frequency and the rate of SCE and promotes the formation of C-metaphases. In root meristematic cells of the three barley cultivars studied (Galactic, Sonor and Unirea), the mitotic index of infected plants was found to be 52.5, 54.48 and 64.17%, respectively, lower than the uninfected control. An increase in frequency of sister chromatid exchanges was observed in all the experimental variants. In treatments involving viral infection alone or in combination with gamma irradiation chromosomes with three and more chromatid exchanges were observed, while their percentage in the control or in treatments with gamma irradiation alone was reduced. The results of the study indicate that in plants derived from irradiated seeds, BSMV produces an effect that is correlated nonlinearly with the radiation dose applied. Cytological analysis of mitotic divisions in barley roots revealed the genotoxicity of BSMV infection.

EdU-Based Step-by-Step Method for the Detection of Sister Chromatid Exchanges for Application in Plant Genotoxicity Assessment

“…No mutagen-induced SCEs were analyzed previously, which is crucial to test the sensitivity of a new method by using an experimental design to study the response to physical and chemical agents. The SCE test has previously been used in barley using BrdU-substituted chromatids (Schubert et al, 1980;Andronic et al, 2010). Although the results of our studies confirmed the formation of SCEs under control conditions, a direct comparison with previous data is difficult due to differences in the experimental conditions, such as the BrdU concentrations and the time of its incorporation, as well as the different barley varieties and lines that were used for the studies.…”

“…SCEs have been previously applied to studies of the chromosomes of numerous plant species (Schvartzman, 1987), including Allium species (Panda et al, 1996), Vicia faba (Huilan and Si, 2007), Tradescantia (Peng and Ma, 1990), and Hordeum vulgare (Yi et al, 2005;Andronic et al, 2010). Hundreds of different types of substances have been tested for their mutagenic potential in SCEs.…”