RNA silencing safeguards plant fertility during viral infection and decreases turnip rosette virus vertical transmission
Aimer Gutiérrez-Díaz, Sanjana Holla, Inês Moura and Anders Hafrén*
affiliations: Department of Plant Biology, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center for Plant Biology, Box 7080, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden.
*correspondence: anders.hafren@slu.se
- Comparative viral transcriptomic analysis
- Viral RdRps structural prediction and phylogenetics
- References
RNA-seq expression data for uninfected and infected Arabidopsis thaliana were obtained from NCBI Bioprojects: TuMV PRJNA788379 [1], TuYV and CaMV PRJEB49403 [2], TYMV PRJNA1103879 [3], TCV PRJNA336058 [4], CMV PRJNA1124548 [5] and ArLV1 PRJNA863409 [6]. Read processing, alignment, and gene-level quantification was addressed by mapping with HISAT2 v2.2.1 [7] to TAIR10 reference genome and quantifying with featureCounts [8]. Differential expression was computed separately within each using DESeq2 DEGs were calculated using Deseq2 [9].
| Virus | Project | Libraries | SeqType | Tissue | Ecotype | Genotypes | dpi | SRRs | Paper | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CaMV | PRJEB49403 | 6 | Paired-End | Rosette | Col-0 | WT aphid Mp | 14dold, 21dpi | ERR7738945, ERR7738946, ERR7738947, ERR7738939, ERR7738940, ERR7738941 | 10.1128/spectrum.00136-22 | [2] |
| TuYV | PRJEB49403 | 3 | Paired-End | Rosette | Col-0 | WT aphid Mp | 14dold, 21dpi | ERR7738939, ERR7738940, ERR7738941, ERR7738942, ERR7738943, ERR7738944 | 10.1128/spectrum.00136-22 | [2] |
| TuMV | PRJNA788379 | 8 | Paired-End | Rosette | Col-0 and Bar-0 | Wt | 28dold, 14dpi | SRR17227570, SRR17227569, SRR17227568, SRR17227567, SRR17227565, SRR17227564, SRR17227563, SRR17227562 | 10.1371/journal.pone.0275588 | [1] |
| TCV | PRJNA336058 | 6 (12) | Paired-End | Leaves | Col- | WT and dcl1-/- | 28dold, 8dpi | SRR3992506, SRR3992507, SRR3992508, SRR3992509, SRR3992510, SRR3992511 | 10.1038/srep36007. | [4] |
| CMV | PRJNA1124548 | 6 | Paired-End | Rosette | Col-0 | WT, CMV and CMV-Δ2b | 14dpi | SRR29428980, SRR29428985, SRR29428982, SRR29428983 | 10.1038/s41467-025-65355-1 | [5] |
| TYMV | PRJNA1103879 | 8 (16) | Single-End | Rosette | Col-0 | WT and atg2 | 12dpi | SRR28785882, SRR28785883, SRR28785876, SRR28785877, SRR28785878 | 10.1101/2024.05.06.590709 | [3] |
| ArLV1 | PRJNA863409 | 7 (58) | Paired-End | Leaves | Col-0 | WT | 4% vs 80% infestation | SRR20705605, SRR20705604, SRR20705602, SRR20705607, SRR20705606, SRR20705603 | 10.1093/plphys/kiae581 | [6] |
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Liu_CMV_fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "CMVvsMock"
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Gyula_TVCV_TuMV_fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "TuMVvsMock"
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Gao_TCV_fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "TCVvsMock"
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Chesnais_CaMV_TuYV_fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "CaMVvsMock"
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Chesnais_CaMV_TuYV_fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "TuYVvsMock"
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Clavel_TYMV_fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "TYMVvsMock"
Rscript Code/deseqDEG.R FeatureCounts/Jiang_ArLV1_mArR1fcounts.txt "WTvsWT" "ArLV1vsMock"(cat Data/deseq_head.txt && for gene in `cat Data/PRs_genes.csv | cut -f 1` ; do grep $gene FeatureCounts/*DESeq2*; done ) > Data/PRs_Deseq2.txtDeseqOut <- read.delim("Data/PRs_Deseq2.txt", check.names = FALSE)
GeneNames <- read.delim("Data/PRs_genes.csv", header = F)
colnames(GeneNames) <- c("gene","gene_name")
DeseqOut_clean <- DeseqOut %>%
mutate(id = .[[1]]) %>%
select(-1) %>%
separate(id, into = c("file", "gene"), sep = ":", extra = "merge", fill = "right") %>%
mutate(
file = basename(file),
file = str_remove(file, "\\.tsv$"),
Project = str_extract(file, "^[^_]+"),
Condition = gsub(".*_","",file),
Virus = str_match(file, "DESeq2_([^_]+)_vs_")[,2],
sig = case_when(
!is.na(padj) & padj < 0.001 ~ "***",
!is.na(padj) & padj < 0.01 ~ "**",
!is.na(padj) & padj < 0.05 ~ "*",
TRUE ~ "ns"
)
)
DeseqOut_clean <- merge(GeneNames,DeseqOut_clean, by.x = "gene" )DeseqOut_clean$ColKey <- DeseqOut_clean$Virus
log2fc_mat <- xtabs(log2FoldChange ~ gene_name + ColKey, data = DeseqOut_clean)
log2fc_mat <- as.matrix(log2fc_mat)
# helper for significance stars: take first non-empty star, else ""
first_star <- function(x) {
x <- x[!is.na(x)]
x <- x[x != ""]
x <- x[!x %in% c("ns","NS","n.s.","N.S.","NA")]
if (length(x) == 0) return("")
x[1]
}
sig_mat <- tapply(DeseqOut_clean$sig,
list(DeseqOut_clean$gene_name, DeseqOut_clean$ColKey),
first_star)
# ---- colors for unscaled log2FC ----
mx <- max(abs(log2fc_mat), na.rm = TRUE)
col_fun <- colorRamp2(c(-mx, 0, mx), c("#2b8cbe", "white", "#de2d26"))
# ---- draw heatmap with stars overlaid on cells ----
colOrder <- c( "ArLV1","TuYV","TYMV","CaMV","TCV","TuMV","CMV")
sig_mat <- sig_mat[rowOrder,]
ht <- Heatmap(
log2fc_mat,
name = "log2FC",
col = col_fun,
na_col = "grey90",
cluster_rows = F,
cluster_columns = F,
column_title = NULL,
row_title = NULL,
rect_gp = gpar(col = "grey80", lwd = 0.5),
# stars on top of each cell
cell_fun = function(j, i, x, y, w, h, fill) {
s <- sig_mat[i, j]
if (!is.na(s) && nzchar(s)) {
grid.text(s, x, y, gp = gpar(fontsize = 12, col = "black"))
}
}
)
svg(filename = "Figures/CompTranscriptome_PRs_sig.svg", width = 4, height = 4)
ht
dev.off()
pdf(file = "Figures/CompTranscriptome_PRs_sig.pdf", width = 4, height = 4)
ht
dev.off()DeseqOut_clean$Virus <- factor(DeseqOut_clean$Virus, levels = c("ArLV1","TuYV","TYMV","CaMV","TCV","TuMV","CMV"))
viral_gradient <- c("Mock" ="#FA9EB4","TuYV" = "#fecf92","ArLV1" = "#feff92","TRoV" = "#641a80","CMV" = "#F768A1" ,"CaMV" ="#DD3497", "TYMV" = "#AE017E" ,"TCV" ="#b73779" ,"TuMV" = "#7A0177" )
PR1_plot <- ggplot(DeseqOut_clean[DeseqOut_clean$gene == "AT2G14610",], aes(x = Virus, y = log2FoldChange, fill = Virus)) +
geom_col(width = 0.7) +
geom_errorbar(aes(ymin = log2FoldChange - lfcSE, ymax = log2FoldChange + lfcSE),
width = 0.2, linewidth = 0.6) +
geom_text(aes(label = sig), position = position_dodge(width = 0.6),
vjust = -0.8, size = 10, show.legend = FALSE) +
scale_fill_manual(values = viral_gradient) +
scale_y_continuous(expand = expansion(mult = c(0.05, 0.10))) +
# facet_wrap(~ gene, scales = "free_y") +
theme_bw( base_size = 30, base_family = "Helvetica") +theme( legend.position = "none") +
labs(x = NULL, y = "PR1 log2FC\n Relative to Mock")
ggsave(PR1_plot, device = pdf, filename = "Figures/PR1_plot.pdf", width=9, height=7.5)
PRs <- DeseqOut_clean[grepl( "AT2G14610|AT3G57260|AT1G75040", DeseqOut_clean$gene),-9]
out_list <- list(
Deseq2Transcriptome = PRs
)
ggsave(PR1_plot, device = svg, filename = "Figures/PR1_plot.svg", width=9, height=7.5)
ggsave(PR1_plot, device = pdf, filename = "Figures/PR1_plot.pdf", width=9, height=7.5)
write.xlsx(out_list, file = "Results/SupTable5.PRs_comp_transcriptomics.xlsx", overwrite = TRUE)
PRs_plot <- ggplot(DeseqOut_clean[grepl( "AT3G57260|AT1G75040",DeseqOut_clean$gene ),],
aes(x = Virus, y = log2FoldChange, fill = Virus)) +
geom_col(width = 0.7) +
geom_errorbar(aes(ymin = log2FoldChange - lfcSE, ymax = log2FoldChange + lfcSE),
width = 0.2, linewidth = 0.6) +
geom_text(aes(label = sig), position = position_dodge(width = 0.6),
vjust = -0.8, size = 10, show.legend = FALSE) +
scale_fill_manual(values = viral_gradient) +
scale_y_continuous(expand = expansion(mult = c(0.05, 0.25))) +
facet_grid(.~gene_name ) +
theme_bw( base_size = 30, base_family = "Helvetica") +
labs(x = NULL, y = "log2FC ± lfcSE\n Relative to Mock") +
theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90, vjust = 0.5, hjust = 1),legend.position = "none")
ggsave(PRs_plot, device = pdf, filename = "Figures/PR2_5_plot.pdf", width=12, height=8)
ggsave(PRs_plot, device = svg, filename = "Figures/PR2_5_plot.svg", width=12, height=8)Protein sequences corresponding to CMV 2a, TRV 134K, TyMV 206K, TRoV P2ab, ALV1 P1, TuMV NIb, and PLrV, TuYV, RYMV, AhPV1, TMV, YoMV, TCV, P1AMV RdRps were curated prior to structure prediction. For viruses where the replication protein is polyprotein-derived (e.g., TRoV P2ab), sequences were processed to extract the annotated mature peptide corresponding to the RdRP-containing product, final sequences are available in this repository. Each curated protein was then folded using AlphaFold2 [10], while CaMV P5 PBD was the only RdRp experimentally elucidated (PDB: 8R0S) [11]. To build a structure-based phylogeny, an initial structural reconstruction was performed using the predicted RdRP models, and a non-LTR retrotransposon reverse transcriptase structure (PDB: 8GH6) was included as an outgroup, in a similar way to [12]. Finally, a consensus topology was obtained by performing an agreement analysis between trees generated from DALI [13] and Foldtree [14] outputs, retaining and scoring clades supported by both approaches.
The sequence or chain selection applied to each structure in RdRps/ is
summarized below. Residue ranges follow the numbering stored in each PDB
file. “Residues in PDB” counts residues with ATOM records;
consequently, experimentally determined structures can contain fewer
coordinate-bearing residues than the retained sequence span because
unresolved residues are absent. Mean pLDDT was recalculated for
AlphaFold2 models as the arithmetic mean of the C$\alpha$-atom B-factor
field, using one value per residue. For experimental structures, this
field contains experimental B-factors or related quality values rather
than pLDDT and is therefore reported as not applicable (N/A).
| PDB file | Protein or construct | Sequence post-processing | Retained PDB range | Residues in PDB | Mean pLDDT | Published-structure citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ahpv1_rdrp_relax_m3_p0_plddt-90.pdb |
AhPV1 RdRp | Complete submitted RdRp sequence retained; no terminal trimming | A:1–585 | 585 | 90.61 | – |
alv1_p1_1140_1610.pdb |
ALV1 P1 | N-terminal region removed to retain the C-terminal RdRp region; the stored endpoint is residue 1610 | A:1140–1610 | 471 | 87.78 | – |
CaMV_P5_8R0S.pdb |
CaMV P5 reverse transcriptase | Protein chain A retained from the experimental structure; bound nucleic-acid chains were removed | A:1–475 | 470 | N/A | [11] |
CMV_2a_273-750.pdb |
CMV 2a | Internal RdRp-containing region extracted from the replication protein | A:273–750 | 478 | 88.20 | – |
nonLTR_RT_8gh6_1_924.pdb |
Bombyx mori R2 non-LTR reverse transcriptase | Protein chain A retained from the experimental structure; bound RNA and DNA chains were removed | A:111–924 | 715 | N/A | [15] |
PlAMV_RdRp_q07518_895_1385.pdb |
PlAMV RdRp | C-terminal RdRp-containing region extracted from the replication protein | A:895–1385 | 491 | 85.61 | – |
PLrV_Polerovirus_P11623_relax_m4_p0_plddt-78.pdb |
PLrV replication protein | Complete submitted replication-protein sequence retained; no terminal trimming | A:1–1062 | 1062 | 77.77 | – |
rymv_rdrp_1_464.pdb |
RYMV RdRp | Complete submitted RdRp sequence retained; no terminal trimming | A:1–464 | 464 | 93.93 | – |
tcv_rdrp_relax_m1_p0_plddt-92.pdb |
TCV RdRp | Complete submitted RdRp sequence retained; no terminal trimming | A:1–524 | 524 | 92.56 | – |
tmv_rdrp_1117_relax_m3_p0_plddt-91.pdb |
TMV RdRp | C-terminal RdRp region beginning at source residue 1117 extracted and renumbered from 1 in the PDB | A:1–499 | 499 | 91.20 | – |
trov_p2ab_428.pdb |
TRoV P2ab | N-terminal region removed to retain the mature RdRp-containing product | A:428–874 | 447 | 91.61 | – |
trv_134k_1206_1707.pdb |
TRV 134K | C-terminal RdRp-containing region extracted | A:1206–1707 | 502 | 86.51 | – |
TuMV_NIb_m2_plddt-93.pdb |
TuMV NIb | Mature NIb product extracted from the viral polyprotein and renumbered from 1 | A:1–517 | 517 | 93.20 | – |
TuYV_RdRP_p09507_relax_m1_p0_plddt-80.pdb |
TuYV replication protein | Complete submitted replication-protein sequence retained; no terminal trimming | A:1–1035 | 1035 | 80.63 | – |
tymv_206k_1298.pdb |
TyMV 206K | N-terminal region removed to retain the C-terminal RdRp-containing region | A:1298–1844 | 547 | 82.12 | – |
YoMV_RdRP_q66220_1120_1597.pdb |
YoMV RdRp | C-terminal RdRp-containing region extracted from the replication protein | A:1120–1597 | 478 | 88.25 | – |
To provide quantitative support for the structure-based groupings
obtained with DALI and Foldtree, all 16 structures in RdRps/ were
compared in an all-versus-all analysis with US-align v20260826
[16]. US-align performs sequence-independent
monomeric structural alignment by maximizing TM-score. For every one of
the 120 unique pairs, the analysis reports the RMSD over residues
retained in the final structural alignment, aligned length, sequence
identity, coverage, and TM-scores normalized independently by the length
of each structure. Because length-specific TM-scores are directional,
the symmetric TM-score matrix below uses the score normalized by the
average length of the two structures (-a T); both directional scores
remain available in the tidy results file.
TM-score ranges from 0 to 1, and values of at least approximately 0.5 generally indicate the same global protein fold. RMSD is sensitive to the number of aligned residues and was therefore interpreted jointly with TM-score and alignment coverage. These metrics provide an independent, quantitative check of the structural-similarity signal underlying the DALI/Foldtree topology; they are descriptive alignment measures rather than bootstrap or branch-support probabilities.
| Summary statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Structures | 16 |
| Unique pairwise alignments | 120 |
| RMSD, minimum / median / maximum | 0.69 / 4.13 / 5.55 Å |
| Average-length-normalized TM-score, minimum / median / maximum | 0.266 / 0.594 / 0.971 |
| Pairs with TM-score >= 0.5 | 75/120 (62.5%) |
The closest structural pairs illustrate that the high-similarity signal is not restricted to a single example. TMV–YoMV had the highest average-length-normalized TM-score (0.971; RMSD 0.69 Å across 478 aligned residues), followed by RYMV–TRoV (0.953; 1.32 Å across 445 residues), TRV–YoMV (0.937; 1.52 Å across 475 residues), and CMV–YoMV (0.921; 2.20 Å across 468 residues).
All pairwise aligned-residue RMSD and average-length-normalized TM-score values.The complete numerical results are available as a tidy pairwise table, an RMSD matrix, and a TM-score matrix. The run metadata records the US-align version, executable checksum, command, and metric definitions.
UPGMA average-linkage clustering [17] was
performed independently with (i) aligned-residue RMSD as the distance
and (ii) 1 - average-length-normalized TM-score as the distance. The
internal-node labels in the dendrograms are the arithmetic-mean linkage
distances at which clusters were joined. Both analyses recover the
particularly close TMV–YoMV and RYMV–TRoV pairs; additional differences
between the dendrograms are expected because RMSD and TM-score weight
alignment extent and length differently. UPGMA imposes an ultrametric
hierarchy, so these dendrograms are a transparent descriptive clustering
of the validation metrics and are not presented as replacements for the
DALI/Foldtree evolutionary topology.
The exact linkage histories are provided in the RMSD merge table and TM-distance merge table. Machine-readable trees are provided in Newick format for RMSD and TM distance.
The complete analysis, including all alignments, matrices, UPGMA trees, and figures, can be regenerated with the repository script after downloading the official US-align executable:
python Code/pairwise_structure_validation.py --usalign /path/to/USalignThe existing structural visualization shows the close Sobemovirus pair TRoV (blue) and RYMV (orange). The values below were recalculated in the same all-pairwise US-align run.
| Pair | Chains | RMSD (Å) | TM-score (average-length normalized) | Directional TM-scores (RYMV / TRoV length) | Identity | Aligned residues |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RYMV–TRoV | A / A | 1.32 | 0.953 | 0.936 / 0.971 | 51.5% | 445 |
Structural alignment of RdRp between the closely related
Sobemoviruses TRoV (blue) and RYMV (orange).
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