There's a virus that tricks plants into thinking they’re starving just so they’ll move all their nutrients to where the virus wants them.
Scientists long thought viruses simply 'ate' the nutrients plants need to grow, but this study shows they actually hack the plant's internal signaling. By triggering a fake 'starvation' response, the virus forces the plant to move phosphorus to the roots, paving the way for the infection to spread.
Turnip mosaic virus triggers phosphate starvation-like responses remodeling shoot-root phosphorus allocation without resource competition
SSRN · 6534095
Plant viruses affect production through symptom induction in host plants. These symptoms overlap with those produced by abiotic stresses such as nutrient deprivation. The resource competition hypothesis posits that massive viral replication deprives hosts of essential nutrients, yet direct evidence for phosphorus (P) competition is lacking. Using a hydroponic system enabling separate analysis of shoots and roots in adult Arabidopsis thaliana plants, we investigated whether Turnip mosaic virus (T