Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus contributes to increase the tolerance of tomato to drought stress.

One of the main physiological stress factors that has a negative impact on agricultural productivity is drought stress, which modifies essential aspects of plant development and metabolism. Viruses can affect how plants respond to abiotic stress and their tolerance capacity. Begomovirus (family Geminiviridae), have been demonstrated to increase ability to tolerate heat and drought stresses in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana. We decided to investigate if the performances of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), one of the most significant crops in agriculture, towards drought stress were increased upon infection by a begomovirus. For this, we investigated the tolerance to drought in tomato plants infected by the tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus (TYLCSV). Transcriptional analyses of genes associated to hormone metabolism and stress response, together with analysis of morphological and physiological traits, were conducted in three conditions, i.e. well-watered, water-stressed and after recovery. TYLCSV-infected plants were more tolerant to water stress and recovered from dehydration more quickly compared to mock-inoculated plants. Our research improves the state of knowledge on how viruses affect the plant's ability to adapt to environmental challenges, opening new research avenues for the study of agricultural adaptation to climate change.