Diversity, characteristics and potential for biological control of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum mycoviruses in New Zealand
type: CreativeWork
description: Mycoviruses present a potential means of controlling plant pathogenic fungi, such as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, that avoid the drawbacks associated with fungicide-based control, such as resistance and environmental impact. Mycoviruses have been used to reduce the virulence of fungal pathogens, such as using hypoviruses to control the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, and there are increasing reports of hypovirulence-mediating mycoviruses in other fungi, including S. sclerotiorum. Of the New Zealand S. sclerotiorum isolates tested, 73% contained double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs), indicative of virus presence, some of which had a hypovirulent phenotype. Data from Illumina sequencing showed that mycoviruses in S. sclerotiorum are more diverse than was apparent from dsRNA profiles. Twelve viral genomes were fully sequenced most of which were novel, increasing the total number of S. sclerotiorum mycoviruses from eight to 20. Mitoviruses were the most prevalent with ten genomes representing five novel species and a previously characterised mitovirus. Studies on an isolate harbouring three mitoviruses, demonstrated that they are horizontally transmitted via anastomosis and vertically transmitted through ascospores, with associated reduced virulence and malformed mitochondria of the host. Curing experiments revealed that Sclerotinia sclerotiorum mitovirus 3 (SsMV3/NZ1) played a significant role in the expression of the hypovirulent phenotype. Other viruses detected and molecularly and phylogenetically characterised included an endornavirus assigned the name Sclerotinia sclerotiorum endornavirus 1 (SsEV1/11691) and a putative novel member of Hypoviridae, potentially representing a new genus and assigned the name Sclerotinia sclerotiorum hypovirus 2 (SsHV2/5472). Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequences of the endornaviral methyletransferase (MTR), helicase (Hel) and RNA dependent RNApolymerase (RdRp) domains revealed that endornaviruses clustered int…
abstract: Mycoviruses present a potential means of controlling plant pathogenic fungi, such as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, that avoid the drawbacks associated with fungicide-based control, such as resistance and environmental impact. Mycoviruses have been used to reduce the virulence of fungal pathogens, such as using hypoviruses to control the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, and there are increasing reports of hypovirulence-mediating mycoviruses in other fungi, including S. sclerotiorum. Of the New Zealand S. sclerotiorum isolates tested, 73% contained double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs), indicative of virus presence, some of which had a hypovirulent phenotype. Data from Illumina sequencing showed that mycoviruses in S. sclerotiorum are more diverse than was apparent from dsRNA profiles. Twelve viral genomes were fully sequenced most of which were novel, increasing the total number of S. sclerotiorum mycoviruses from eight to 20. Mitoviruses were the most prevalent with ten genomes representing five novel species and a previously characterised mitovirus. Studies on an isolate harbouring three mitoviruses, demonstrated that they are horizontally transmitted via anastomosis and vertically transmitted through ascospores, with associated reduced virulence and malformed mitochondria of the host. Curing experiments revealed that Sclerotinia sclerotiorum mitovirus 3 (SsMV3/NZ1) played a significant role in the expression of the hypovirulent phenotype. Other viruses detected and molecularly and phylogenetically characterised included an endornavirus assigned the name Sclerotinia sclerotiorum endornavirus 1 (SsEV1/11691) and a putative novel member of Hypoviridae, potentially representing a new genus and assigned the name Sclerotinia sclerotiorum hypovirus 2 (SsHV2/5472). Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequences of the endornaviral methyletransferase (MTR), helicase (Hel) and RNA dependent RNApolymerase (RdRp) domains revealed that endornaviruses clustered int…
author: Khalifa, Mahmoud
license: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm
date published: 2014
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:06:48Z
provider: University of Auckland
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: ResearchSpace@Auckland

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2292/22639