Preventive and curative effects of Apple latent spherical virus vectors harboring part of the target virus genome against potyvirus and cucumovirus infections.

Apple latent spherical virus (ALSV)-based vectors experimentally infect a broad range of plant species without causing symptoms and can effectively induce stable virus-induced gene silencing in plants. Here, we show that pre-infection of ALSV vectors harboring part of a target viral genome (we called ALSV vector vaccines here) inhibits the multiplication and spread of the corresponding challenge viruses [Bean yellow mosaic virus, Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV), and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV)] by a homology-dependent resistance. Further, the plants pre-infected with an ALSV vector having genome sequences of both ZYMV and CMV were protected against double inoculation of ZYMV and CMV. More interestingly, a curative effect of an ALSV vector vaccine could also be expected in ZYMV-infected cucumber plants, because the symptoms subsided on subsequent inoculation with an ALSV vector vaccine. This may be due to the invasion of ALSV, but not ZYMV, in the shoot apical meristem of cucumber.