Proteomic insights into the effect of Broad bean wilt virus-1 infection in Nicotiana benthamiana plants

Broad bean wilt virus 1 (BBWV-1, genus Fabavirus, family Secoviridae) infects many plants species, including important horticultural crops. Since some tobacco plants such as Nicotiana benthamiana, are susceptible to many viruses, they are used as experimental hosts and therefore abundant information about these species is available in databases. Here, the protein differential expression in N. benthamiana plants infected with BBWV-1 was studied using Liquid Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry in tandem analysis (LC–MS/MS). Also, we studied the role of viral VP37 protein which is a BBWV-1 determinant of pathogenicity in the accumulation of the host proteins. For this purpose, we agroinfiltrated N. benthamiana plants with two BBWV-1 cDNA infectious clones: pBBWV1-Wt wilt type and the pBBWV1-G492C mutant knocking out for the viral VP37 protein. Virus infection induced the differential expression of 44 host proteins: 22 were overexpressed and the other 22 were underexpressed. These proteins were involved in important plant processes and located in different cell organelles, mainly in chloroplasts. Finally, 24 of these proteins were expressed differentially according to the presence of VP37 protein. Relation among host proteins that were differentially expressed, plant symptoms, and subcellular alterations are discussed.