The Virology Laboratory team, coordinated by Professor Poliane Alfenas Zerbini, was in Foz do Iguaçu in the first week of October

A group of researchers from the Graduate Program in Agricultural Microbiology (PPGMBA) linked to the Virology Laboratory were in Foz do Iguaçu from October 2 to 5 for the 35th Congresso Brasileiro de Virologia. Professor Poliane Alfenas Zerbini presented the lecture “Transforming foes into friends: the role of a Tubulavirus in converting a pathogenic bacteria into commensal-like organisms”, while post-doc Rafael Rezende and doctoral student Yam Sousa Santos gave oral presentations of their work. Students Cauê de Oliveira and Hilana Rocha also presented their research via banners.

“This is an event we’ve been attending for several years now, and the reception to our work is huge. As we work with a group of viruses that has been little explored, everyone is eager to see the results from our laboratory. At each congress, we take some of our research with us, and people follow it with great enthusiasm,” says Rafael, who is also a junior member of the executive board of the Sociedade Brasileira de Virologia and was involved in organizing the congress.

Rafael’s work – “Inovirus alters the extracellular vesicle production profile of Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum, affecting the plant immune response” – is also signed by researchers Phedra Gusmão da Silva de Oliveira, Giarlã Silva and Poliane Alfenas-Zerbini. “In this work, we describe the interaction of a virus that infects the bacterium, but does not kill it, but only turns this bacterium, which is phytopathogenic, into a non-pathogenic bacterium,” says Rafael. “So we’re exploring the use of this virus as a biological control mechanism.”

This is Rafael’s second paper on this subject to be selected for an edition of the Virology Congress. “This year we are exploring a characteristic that we are seeing altered by the virus, which is the production of vesicles that the bacteria use to attack the plant. We’re seeing a reduction in vesicle production and a change in the composition of these vesicles, and that’s what we’re talking about at the congress.”

In Foz do Iguaçu, Yam presented part of the research he has been carrying out for his doctoral thesis. The work “Diversity of viruses and viroid-like agents infecting Sclerotinia sclerotiorum isolates from Brazil”, authored by him and Cauê Oliveira, Bianca Gomes, Rafael Rezende and Poliane Alfenas Zerbini, explores viruses that have the potential to infect a fungus that has a strong pathogenic action. During this process, Yam found a wide variety of RNA viruses and also viroids, which should yield what the researchers believe is the second report of the presence of this type of organism associated with fungi.

“The opportunity to take this work to the congress was challenging, enriching and very interesting. As well as overcoming the challenge, because I had to speak in English, I also had the chance to talk to other researchers, which strengthens the work and generates new ideas,” says Yam, who gave an oral presentation at the event for the first time.