Potato virus X induces DNA damage in leaf nuclei of the host tobacco plant Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Xanthi

Cerovska N., Plchova H., Vaculik P., Moravec T., Gichner T.
BIOLOGIA PLANTARUM 58 (4): 783-787, 2014

Keywords: Comet assay, ethyl methanesulphonate, single cell gel electrophoresis, somatic mutations
Abstract: We employed the comet assay (single cell gel electrophoresis) to evaluate induced DNA damage in nuclei isolated from tobacco leaves (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) inoculated with Potato virus X (PVX). The highest DNA damage, expressed by the Tail moment value, was observed in the inoculated leaves and decreased in the 1st to 4th systemic leaves. The DNA damage increased with the time after inoculation (day 3 to day 21) and was higher in nuclei isolated from a part of the leaf at the leafstalk compared to nuclei isolated from the end of the leaf. A Pearson Moment correlation (r= 0.94) between the induced DNA damage and the PVX titres expressed by the ELISA absorbance values was observed. PVX infection did not induce a significant increase in the rate of somatic mutations evaluated by the appearance of dark green, yellow and double green/yellow sectors on the heterozygous pale green leaves of N. tabacum cv. Xanthi.
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IEB authors: Noemi Čeřovská, Tomáš Gichner, Tomáš Moravec, Helena Plchová