Abstract
The increasing pace of global warming and climate instability will challenge the management of pests and diseases of cultivated plants. Several reports have shown that increases in environmental temperature can enhance the cell-to-cell and systemic propagation of viruses within their infected hosts. These observations suggest that earlier and longer periods of warmer weather may cause important changes in the interaction between viruses and their host’s plants, thus posing risks of new viral diseases and outbreaks in agriculture and the wild. As viruses target plasmodesmata (PD) for cell-to-cell spread, these cell wall pores may play yet unknown roles in the temperature-sensitive regulation of intercellular communication and virus infection. Understanding the temperature-sensitive mechanisms in plant-virus interactions will provide important knowledge for protecting crops against diseases in a warmer climate.
Introduction
Viruses can cause major losses in crop yields and are the primary cause of emerging diseases in plants (). As has been reviewed comprehensively, changes in temperature and other parameters of climate change (changes in rainfall patterns, wind, accumulation of greenhouse gases, and extreme weather events, to name a few) are expected to affect the geographic distribution of the viral hosts and vectors, and thus the epidemiology of viruses that depend on these hosts and vectors for propagation and inter-plant transmission (; ). As global temperatures increase, poleward and higher altitude areas with currently colder weather likely assume a more temperate climate, whereas the regions with currently temperate climate become warmer and may assume a climate that is more typical for tropical zones. Thus, in response to global temperature increases, the viral hosts and vectors adapted to temperate climates are expected to spread with their viruses poleward and to higher altitudes where temperatures will then be temperate, whereas hosts and viral vectors in tropical regions will invade with their viruses the regions with a currently mild climate where temperatures may have increased toward values that are currently typical for tropical areas. In these newly invaded regions, virus hosts and vectors as well as their viruses may find conditions that are similar as in previous habitats, thus allowing them to interact as previously. From this point of view, a warmer climate is predicted to cause a global shift in the distribution of viruses along with their hosts and vectors. And, because this process may allow viruses to interact with their current hosts and vectors as previously, a strong global impact on virus propagation and virus-caused diseases in agriculture may not be expected. On the other hand, this view may be too simple. First, the new geographical locations may allow viruses to find new hosts, which poses risks of new emerging diseases (). Second and more important, plants tolerate broad ranges of temperatures (; Figure 1), and most of them will likely not migrate, at least not immediately. For canola and potato, for example, the ranges of temperatures for growth with at least 50% of the maximum rate are from 15.0 to 29.6°C and from 21.6 to 37.3°C, respectively. For sunflower, which has a temperature optimum around 29°C, the range is from 17.3 to 38.3°C. The average high temperature currently reached in summer in London, Paris, or Berlin (23–25°C;1) is below the temperature optima for crops grown in the area such as wheat, barley, potato, maize, or sunflower (27.7, 26.6, 30.6, 30.8, and 29.3°C, respectively; ). Thus, there is room for temperature increases until these and other plants are forced to migrate. According to current climate change projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global mean surface temperature change for the period 2016–2035 relative to 1986–2005 will likely be in the range of 0.3–0.7°C and, dependent on prediction scenarios, may reach 0.3–4.8°C at the end of the 21st century (2081–2100) (). These global changes in temperature are predicted to be accompanied by local weather extremes with heat waves and drought that cause significant yield losses (). However, except for plants currently growing in areas with conditions at their tolerance margins, these predicted changes in temperature will not cause an immediate global migration of all viruses and their hosts away from their current geographical zones. For most hosts and their viruses, expected movements to colder areas may occur only gradually, over long ranges of time. However, while these plants remain at their locations, warmer local temperatures will nevertheless already have immediate effects on the intracellular environment provided by these hosts to viruses, thus posing risks to agriculture.
FIGURE 1
Temperature is a physical parameter that influences biochemical reactions and higher molecular structures, like DNA and proteins, and supramolecular components, like membranes and the elements of the cytoskeleton, through simple thermodynamic effects (
FIGURE 2

Temperature effect on TuMV-GFP infection in B. napus cultivars Drakkar and Tanto. Plants were incubated at 20°C for 8 h (night) and 24°C for 16 h (day) until two leaf stage. Half of the plants were then transferred to 20°C for 8 h (night) and 28°C for 16 h (day). Plants were allowed to adjust for 2 days before inoculation. (A) Effect of temperature on viral cell-to-cell spread in inoculated leaves. Pictures were taken at 6 days post inoculation (6 dpi) under UV light. Scale bar, 1 cm. (B) Sizes of individual local infection sites at 6 dpi. Infection foci in leaves of five plants per condition were measured (Drakkar 24°C, N = 117; Drakkar 28°C, N = 111; Tanto 24°C, N = 112; Tanto 28°C, N = 102. The higher temperature causes a significant increase in the local cell-to-cell spread of infection in both Drakkar (ANOVA, p = 4,3− 21) and Tanto (ANOVA, p = 2,5− 37). (C) Systemic spread of TuMV-GFP in Drakkar is more efficient at 28°C (orange) than at 24°C (green). Inoculated leaves of nine plants at 24°C and of nine plants at 28°C were removed after 1, 2, or 3 dpi, followed by scoring the systemic leaves for GFP fluorescence (systemic infection) at 16 dpi. A control plant from which the inoculated leaf was not removed is shown in panel (D). (D) TuMV-GFP-infected Drakkar plant showing systemic infection at 21 dpi. The picture was taken under UV light.
The risks imposed by global warming may not be limited to viruses in crops, however. It is often overlooked that viruses are ubiquitous in the wild and play an important role in the evolution of life. Surveys have shown that 60–70% of plants grown in natural ecosystems are infected with viruses (
As humanity faces increasing average annual temperatures, it is important to understand the temperature-sensitive mechanisms that determine the propagation and spread of viruses within their hosts. The underlying mechanisms can be of a diverse nature. Apart from increased membrane fluidity and cytoskeletal dynamics that likely accelerate the membrane- and cytoskeleton-associated processes involved in virus replication and transport, temperature may also affect the regulation of the intercellular communication channels in the plant cell walls (plasmodesmata). Plasmodesmata (PD) are important gates through which viruses must move their genomes to spread infection between cells, into the phloem, and finally throughout the plant. In accordance with their central function in intercellular communication, PD are equipped with receptor proteins and receptor protein kinases that form signaling hubs through which PD are enabled to orchestrate processes related to plant growth and development but also responses to pathogens and abiotic stresses (
Warmer temperature may facilitate virus spread also by altering the activity or turnover of the viral movement proteins (MPs), which may affect the interaction of viruses with PD. The mentioned increased efficiency of intercellular spread of TMV in N. benthamiana at higher temperature correlated with changes in the subcellular accumulation pattern of the virus-encoded, GFP-tagged MP (
Warmer temperature could affect TMV movement also by increasing myosin motor activity, thus facilitating the myosin-driven transport of the virus and of MP along the ER-actin network to the PD (
However, warmer temperatures may affect virus cell-to-cell movement also more indirectly, for example, by causing changes in gene expression and alterations in the interactions of viruses with host defense responses. In plants carrying specific resistance (R) genes, warmer temperature may indeed provoke stronger infections since resistance genes against biotrophic and hemi-biotrophic microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi) are often temperature-sensitive and are inactivated at elevated temperature (
As already highlighted, global warming comes along with various other impacts on humidity, drought, rainfall intensity and rainfall patterns, wind speed and direction, and greenhouse gas concentration. These parameters will result in altered crop cultivations systems and the range of cultivated species grown. This, in turn, will also influence the distribution of the viral insect vectors and plant hosts and, thereby, the distribution and evolution of virus species. However, while these long-term global consequences of climate change need to be studied, monitored, and modeled to improve disease management, changes in temperature have immediate effects on cellular mechanisms that are at the core of plant-virus interactions within each infected cell, irrespective of the region where the infected host is grown. This may aggravate diseases in natural and agricultural settings and damage yields and crop survival before temperatures will eventually exceed the host temperature tolerance ranges. To ensure agricultural yield, a concerted research effort is needed to understand the cellular mechanisms that determine disease tolerance in infected plants and to use this knowledge to adapt our crops toward temperature resilience and tolerance for viruses through dedicated breeding programs.
Statements
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.
Author contributions
CH and MH wrote the manuscript. For Figure 2, MH conceived and designed the work. KA performed the acquisition and analysis of the data. All authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Funding
Work shown in Figure 2 was supported by funding from the Agence National de la Recherche (Grant ANR-13-KBBE-00 05-01) and by a Ph.D. fellowship from the Chinese Scholarship Foundation (CSC) to CH.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Footnotes
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Summary
Keywords
plant viruses, Tobacco mosaic virus, temperature, global warming, agriculture, plasmodesmata, tolerance
Citation
Amari K, Huang C and Heinlein M (2021) Potential Impact of Global Warming on Virus Propagation in Infected Plants and Agricultural Productivity. Front. Plant Sci. 12:649768. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.649768
Received
27 January 2021
Accepted
03 March 2021
Published
31 March 2021
Volume
12 - 2021
Edited by
Giorgio Gambino, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council (CNR), Italy
Reviewed by
Ralf Georg Dietzgen, The University of Queensland, Australia; Bryce Falk, University of California, Davis, United States
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© 2021 Amari, Huang and Heinlein.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Manfred Heinlein, manfred.heinlein@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr
†Present address: Khalid Amari, Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology, Quedlinburg, Germany
This article was submitted to Plant Pathogen Interactions, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science
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