Cucumber mosaic virus infection as a potential selective pressure on Arabidopsis thaliana populations

It has been proposed that in wild ecosystems viruses are often plant mutualists, whereas agroecosystems favour pathogenicity. We seek evidence for virus pathogenicity in wild ecosystems through the analysis of plant-virus coevolution, which requires a negative effect of infection on the host fitness. We focus on the interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), which is significant in nature. We studied the genetic diversity of A. thaliana for two defence traits, resistance and tolerance, to CMV. A set of 185 individuals collected in 76 A. thaliana Iberian wild populations were inoculated with different CMV strains. Resistance was estimated from the level of virus multiplication in infected plants, and tolerance from the effect of infection on host progeny production. Resistance and tolerance to CMV showed substantial genetic variation within and between host populations, and depended on the virus x host genotype interaction, two conditions for coevolution. Resistance and tolerance were co-occurring independent traits that have evolved independently from related life-history traits involved in adaptation to climate. The comparison of the genetic structure for resistance and tolerance with that for neutral traits (Q(ST)/F(ST) analyses) indicated that both defence traits are likely under uniform selection. These results strongly suggest that CMV infection selects for defence on A. thaliana populations, and support plant-virus coevolution. Thus, we propose that CMV infection reduces host fitness under the field conditions of the wild A. thaliana populations studied.