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Eukaryotic Cell, February 2008, p. 350-357, Vol. 7, No. 2
1535-9778/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.00356-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Aspergillus Mycoviruses Are Targets and Suppressors of RNA Silencing{triangledown} ,{dagger}

T. M. Hammond,1,{ddagger} M. D. Andrewski,1 M. J. Roossinck,2 and N. P. Keller1*

Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706,1 Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma 734022

Received 28 September 2007/ Accepted 26 November 2007

RNA silencing can function as a virus defense mechanism in a diverse range of eukaryotes, and many viruses are capable of suppressing the silencing machinery targeting them. However, the extent to which this occurs between fungal RNA silencing and mycoviruses is unclear. Here, three Aspergillus dsRNA mycoviruses were partially characterized, and their relationship to RNA silencing was investigated. Aspergillus virus 1816 is related to Agaricus bisporus white button mushroom virus 1 and suppresses RNA silencing through a mechanism that alters the level of small interfering RNA. Aspergillus virus 178 is related to RNA virus L1 of Gremmeniella abietina and does not appear to affect RNA silencing. The third virus investigated, Aspergillus virus 341, is distantly related to Sphaeropsis sapinea RNA virus 2. Detection of mycovirus-derived siRNA from this mycovirus demonstrates that it is targeted for degradation by the Aspergillus RNA silencing machinery. Thus, our results indicate that Aspergillus mycoviruses are both targets and suppressors of RNA silencing. In addition, they suggest that the morphological and physiological changes associated with some mycoviruses could be a result of their antagonistic relationship with RNA silencing.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706. Phone: (608) 262-9795. Fax: (608) 263-2626. E-mail: npk{at}plantpath.wisc.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 7 December 2007.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://ec.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri—Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211.

Eukaryotic Cell, February 2008, p. 350-357, Vol. 7, No. 2
1535-9778/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.00356-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

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  • Hammond, T. M., Bok, J. W., Andrewski, M. D., Reyes-Dominguez, Y., Scazzocchio, C., Keller, N. P. (2008). RNA Silencing Gene Truncation in the Filamentous Fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Eukaryot Cell 7: 339-349 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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