Silver Nanoparticles as A Highly Viricidal Agent to Deter Plant-Infecting Viruses and Disrupt their Acquisition and Transmissibility by Vector Aphid

Abstract Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are a potentially effective tool for deterring viral plant pathogens. This study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of AgNPs to defeat Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) on faba bean plants from the host, virus and vector aphid tripartite interactions side. The antiviral capabilities were evaluated during a foliar protective and curative scheme. Furthermore, the efficiency of AgNPs on virus acquisition and transmission by its vector aphid was investigated. Results indicated that the AgNPs had greatly exhibited curative viricidal activities for inactivation BYMV when applied 48 h post-virus inoculation. The disease occurrence was entirely inhibited with AgNPs rate as low as 100 mg.l− 1, while the infectivity was completely arrested when plants were preventively exposed to 200 mg.l− 1 24 h pre-virus inoculation. AgNPs proved high bio-reactivity by binding to viral particles, suppressing their replication and accumulation within the plant tissues. Moreover, it was noticeably showed to upregulate the pathogenesis-related gene (PR-1) and promote the defense-related enzymes and protein profiles in treated plants irrespective of concentration. Exposure of aphids to AgNPs-treated plants before virus acquisition excitingly reduced the BYMV acquisition and transmission efficiency by 40.65% up to 100 % 24 h post-application and the virus acquisition was affected for 10 days by 6.89 Up to 79.64 % depending on the AgNPs rate. These results concluded that the AgNPs have a high curing viricidal activity by targeting the virus envelop, and more excitingly it can affect the virus-vector combination, suggesting that it may contribute to alleviating the natural disease occurrence and virus transmission under field conditions. Therefore, according to the available literature, this study provides the first report on the deterring activity of nanomaterials against plant virus acquisition and transmission by its vector insects.