Application of game theory to the interaction between plant viruses during mixed infections

Natural mixed infections of plant viruses are frequent, often leading to unpredictable variations in symptoms, infectivity, accumulation and/or vector transmissibility. Cauliflower mosaic caulimovirus (CaMV) has often been found in mixed infections with turnip mosaic potyvirus (TuMV) in plants of the genus Brassica. This study addressed the effect of mixed infection on infectivity, pathogenicity and accumulation of CaMV and TuMV in Arabidopsis thaliana plants inoculated mechanically with cDNA infectious clones. In singly infected plants, TuMV accumulation was approximately 8-fold higher than that of CaMV. In co-infected plants, there was 77 % more TuMV accumulation compared with single infections, whilst the accumulation of CaMV was 56 % lower. This outcome describes a biological game in which TuMV always plays the winner strategy, leading to the competitive exclusion of CaMV. However, the infectivity of each virus was not affected by the presence of the other, and no symptom synergism was observed.