Temperature dependence of antiviral defense.

9 years ago

For a number of years now scientists have been studying why plants are able to effectively fight many common viruses in hot climates but are less effective in cool climates. The explanation (proposed in 2003 by GyÃÂ¶rgy Szittya, DÃÂ¡niel Silhavy, Attila MolnÃÂ¡r, ZoltÃÂ¡n Havelda, ÃÂgnes Lovas, LÃÂ³rÃÂ¡nt Lakatos, ZsÃÂ³fia BÃÂ¡nfalvi, and JÃÂ³zsef BurgyÃÂ¡n, EMBO J. Feb 3, 2003; 22(3): 633Ã¯Â¿Â½Ã¯Â¿Â½"640, ) centers about the siRNA-mediated RNA silencing being a temperature dependent pathway. At first this was thought to occur only in plants, but now is considered to be a possible pathway in all virus infected forms of life (plant, animal, insect, bacteria, etc.).

I thought that since mosquito season is upon many of us, that this recent study would be of interest to many rose growers:
Title: "Cooler Temperatures Destabilize RNA Interference and Increase Susceptibility of Disease Vector Mosquitoes to Viral Infection"

" Author Summary
Although a link between the increased susceptibility of mosquitoes for arthropod-borne viruses and exposure to lower rearing temperatures has been known for many years, the molecular basis of this has remained unknown."
..........................................."Specifically, we demonstrate that RNAi, a critical antiviral immune pathway in mosquito vectors of human disease, is impaired in insects reared at cooler temperatures."

http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0002239

Here is a link that might be useful: link to mosquito - virus study

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Comments (2)

Kippy
9 years ago
Is that a 10 year old link? One would think that it would have been proven by now
henry_kuska
Original Author
9 years ago
The Wikipedia link below tries to give an overview of the field of RNA interference.

Of particle pertinence to Kippy's comment may be the following: "The role of RNA interference in mammalian innate immunity is poorly understood, and relatively little data is available. However, the existence of viruses that encode genes able to suppress the RNAi response in mammalian cells may be evidence in favour of an RNAi-dependent mammalian immune response,[71][72] although this hypothesis has been challenged as poorly substantiated.[73] Maillard et al.[74] and Li et al.[75] provide evidence for the existence of a functional antiviral RNAi pathway in mammalian cells. Other functions for RNAi in mammalian viruses also exist, such as miRNAs expressed by the herpes virus that may act as heterochromatin organization triggers to mediate viral latency.[39]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_interference

Please encourage your children/grandchildren to major in science - there appears to be an infinite amout of research still to be done.

Here is a link that might be useful: link for above