From Asymptomatic to Symptomatic: Multiomics profiling of the temporal response of grapevine viral-mixed infection

Abstract

Mixed viral infections are common in grapevines. However, our understanding of the factors and signaling pathways that influence the expression of viral symptoms in mixed infections is still incomplete. In a previous study, we revealed that the presence of grapevine leafroll-associated virus species in mixed infections was randomly associated with the devel-opment of virus-like symptoms. To understand what drives the timing of these virus-like symptoms in mixed infections, we used dsRNA and total RNA sequencing and metabolomic analysis to profile the viromes, metabolites, and transcripts of grapevine leaves collected at two different times of the year (summer and autumn). We demonstrated that neither viral titre nor virome composition changes were associated with symptom expression in autumn. The total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity increased in most plants except for those with early onset symptoms. According to the results of differential gene expression analysis, cell wall biosynthesis pathways were significantly downregulated in all grapevine plants infected with grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3, grapevine asteroid mosaic-associated virus, and grape-vine Pinot gris virus. In addition, polyketide pathways were significantly upregulated in all cultivars, while flavonoid precursor (e.g. abscisic acid) production was significantly reduced in plants that expressed strong virus-like symptoms. In the Vidal cultivar, an uncharacterized double-stranded RNA-binding protein (DRB) appears to play a critical role in the plants an-tiviral defences, supporting the recent hypothesis that DRBs make an important contribution to dominant antiviral responses in plants. The seasonality of the expression virus-like symptoms appears to be a consequence of the dynamic interactions between antiviral factors and viral counter-defences that occur at different developmental stages of grapevine.