Rice Reoviruses in Insect Vectors.
Rice reoviruses, transmitted by leafhopper or planthopper vectors in a persistent propagative manner, seriously threaten the stability of rice production in Asia. Understanding the mechanisms that enable viral transmission by insect vectors is a key to controlling these viral diseases. This review describes current understanding of replication cycles of rice reoviruses in vector cell lines, transmission barriers, and molecular determinants of vector competence and persistent infection. Despite recent breakthroughs, such as the discoveries of actin-based tubule motility exploited by viruses to overcome transmission barriers and mutually beneficial relationships between viruses and bacterial symbionts, there are still many gaps in our knowledge of transmission mechanisms. Advances in genome sequencing, reverse genetics systems, and molecular technologies will help to address these problems. Investigating the multiple interaction systems among the virus, insect vector, insect symbiont, and plant during natural infection in the field is a central topic for future research on rice reoviruses.
Fujian Province Key Laboratory of Plant Virology, Institute of Plant Virology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, Fujian, People's Republic of China; email: weitaiyun@fafu.edu.cn.
Taiyun
T
Wei
State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China; email: liyi@pku.edu.cn.
Yi
Y
Li
D000818:Animals; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000821:virology; D007313:Insecta / Q000821:virology*; D012275:Oryza / Q000821:virology*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D012087:Reoviridae / Q000502:physiology*
persistent infection; rice reoviruses; transmission barriers; vector competence; virus-insect-plant interactions