Characterization of Arabidopsis thaliana (Columbia) infected with turnip mosaic virus (TuMV)

The response of Arabidopsis thaliana (Columbia) to infection with turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) was characterized at the level of: disease symptom expression, cell content and protein composition. Visual symptoms observed were chlorotic and mottled leaf colouring, severely stunted growth, distortion of leaf blades and delayed bolting. All plants died before seed cases dehisced. Electron microscopy revealed three types of cylindrical inclusion bodies: pinwheels, scrolls and laminated aggregates, in the cytoplasm of infected plants similar to those observed in other plants infected with TuMV. Inoculation of Arabidopsis with TuMV resulted in quantitative changes in several proteins in both soluble and membrane proteins, as revealed by electrophoresis on 12% polyacrylamide gels. Antibodies were made to both infected membrane and soluble proteins. Western blots of infected and uninfected, soluble and membrane proteins probed with antibodies revealed quantitative changes in the same proteins identified by polyacrylamide gels. A CNBr 4B activated sepharose column was used to make infection-specific antibodies to infected soluble proteins. No infection-specific host proteins were detected in Arabidopsis infected with TuMV