Manufactured Nano-Objects Confer Viral Protection against Cucurbit Chlorotic Yellows Virus (CCYV) Infecting Nicotiana benthamiana

Mayasar I Al-Zaban; Sadeq K Alhag; Anas S Dablool; Ahmed Ezzat Ahmed; Saad Alghamdi; Baber Ali; Fatimah A Al-Saeed; Muhammad Hamzah Saleem; Peter Poczai

doi:10.3390/microorganisms10091837

Manufactured Nano-Objects Confer Viral Protection against Cucurbit Chlorotic Yellows Virus (CCYV) Infecting Nicotiana benthamiana

Microorganisms. 2022 Sep 14;10(9):1837. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10091837.

Authors

Mayasar I Al-Zaban¹, Sadeq K Alhag^{2

3}, Anas S Dablool⁴, Ahmed Ezzat Ahmed^{5

6}, Saad Alghamdi⁷, Baber Ali⁸, Fatimah A Al-Saeed⁵, Muhammad Hamzah Saleem⁹, Peter Poczai¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
² Biology Department, College of Science and Arts, King Khalid University, Muhayil 61913, Saudi Arabia.
³ Biology Department, College of Science, Ibb University, Ibb 70270, Yemen.
⁴ Department of Public Health, Health Sciences College at Al-Leith, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 21955, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt.
⁷ Laboratory Medicine Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 24211, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
⁹ College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
¹⁰ Botany Unit, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 7, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.

Abstract

Nanotechnology has emerged as a new tool to combat phytopathogens in agricultural crops. Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) mainly infects Solanaceae crops and causes significant crop losses. Nanomaterials (NMs) may have efficacy against plant viruses, but the mechanisms underlying complex nanomaterials-plant-virus interactions remain elusive. We challenged Nicotiana benthamiana plants with GFP-tagged CCYV and observed morphological, physiological, and molecular changes in response to 21-d foliar exposure to nanoscale Fe and Zn and C₆₀ fullerenes at 100 mg/L concentration for 21 days. We observed that in response to C₆₀ (100 mg/L) treatment, plants displayed a normal phenotype while the viral infection was not seen until 5 days post-inoculation. On the contrary, Fe and Zn were unable to suppress viral progression. The mRNA transcriptional analysis for GFP and viral coat protein revealed that the transcripts of both genes were 5-fold reduced in response to C₆₀ treatment. Evaluation of the chloroplast ultrastructure showed that NMs treatment maintained the normal chloroplast structure in the plants as compared to untreated plants. C₆₀ upregulated the defense-related phytohormones (abscisic acid and salicylic acid) by 42-43%. Our results demonstrate the protective function of carbon-based NMs, with suppression of CCYV symptoms via inhibition of viral replication and systemic movement.

Keywords: C60 based-NPs; cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus; foliar application.

Grants and funding

The publication was supported by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2022R84), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through the Research Group Project under grant number (R.G.P 1-100/43). Peter Poczai acknowledges the support of the iASK Grant.