scholarly journals RNA virus interference via CRISPR/Cas13a system in plants

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashid Aman ◽  
Zahir Ali ◽  
Haroon Butt ◽  
Ahmed Mahas ◽  
Fatima Aljedaani ◽  
...  

AbstractCRISPR/Cas systems confer immunity against invading nucleic acids and phages in bacteria and archaea. CRISPR/Cas13a (known previously as C2c2) is a class 2 type VI-A ribonuclease capable of targeting and cleaving single stranded RNA (ssRNA) molecules of the phage genome. Here, we employ CRISPR/Cas13a to engineer interference with an RNA virus, Turnip Mosaic Virus (TuMV), in plants. CRISPR/Cas13a produced interference against green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressing TuMV in transient assays and stable overexpression lines of Nicotiana benthamiana. crRNAs targeting the HC-Pro and GFP sequences exhibited better interference than those targeting other regions such as coat protein (CP) sequence. Cas13a can also process pre-crRNAs into functional crRNAs. Our data indicate that CRISPR/Cas13a can be used for engineering interference against RNA viruses, providing a potential novel mechanism for RNA-guided immunity against RNA viruses, and for other RNA manipulations in plants.


2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 1727-1738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Man ◽  
Bernard L. Epel

A replicon based on Tobacco mosaic virus that was engineered to express the open reading frame (ORF) of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene in place of the native coat protein (CP) gene from a minimal CP subgenomic (sg) RNA promoter was found to accumulate very low levels of GFP. Regulatory regions within the CP ORF were identified that, when presented as untranslated regions flanking the GFP ORF, enhanced or inhibited sg transcription and GFP expression. Full GFP expression from the CP sgRNA promoter required more than the first 20 nt of the CP ORF but not beyond the first 56 nt. Further analysis indicated the presence of an enhancer element between nt +25 and +55 with respect to the CP translation start site. The inclusion of this enhancer sequence upstream of the GFP ORF led to elevated sg transcription and to a 50-fold increase in GFP accumulation in comparison with a minimal CP promoter in which the entire CP ORF was displaced by the GFP ORF. Inclusion of the 3′-terminal 22 nt had a minor positive effect on GFP accumulation, but the addition of extended untranslated sequences from the 3′ terminus of the CP ORF downstream of the GFP ORF was basically found to inhibit sg transcription. Secondary structure analysis programs predicted the CP sgRNA promoter to reside within two stable stem–loop structures, which are followed by an enhancer region.



2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Xiaobao Ying ◽  
Lina Shang ◽  
Bryce Redfern ◽  
Nicholas Kypraios ◽  
...  

Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening, is the most notorious citrus disease worldwide. Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CaLas) is a phloem-restricted bacterium associated with HLB. Because there is no mutant library available, the pathogenesis of CaLas is obscure. In this study, we employed tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) to express two mature secretion proteins CLIBASIA_03915 (m03915) and CLIBASIA_04250 (m04250) in Nicotiana benthamiana (N. benthamiana). Phloem necrosis was observed in the senescent leaves of N. benthamiana that expressed the two low molecular weight proteins, while no phloem necrosis was observed in the plants that expressed the control, green fluorescent protein (GFP). Additionally, no phloem necrosis was observed in the senescent leaves of N. benthamiana that expressed the null mutation of m03915 and frameshifting m04250. The subcellular localizations of m03915 and m04250 were determined by fusion with GFP using confocal microscopy. The subcellular localization of m03915 was found to be as free GFP without a nuclear localization sequence (NLS). However, m04250 did have an NLS. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) was carried out to probe the citrus proteins interacting with m03915 and m04250. Six citrus proteins were found to interact with m03915. The identified proteins were involved in the metabolism of compounds, transcription, response to abiotic stress, ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, etc. The prey of m04250 was involved in the processing of specific pre-mRNAs. Identification of new virulence factors of CaLas will give insight into the pathogenesis of CaLas, and therefore, it will eventually help develop the HLB-resistant citrus.



Microbiology ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 81 (7) ◽  
pp. 1851-1855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole L. Thomas ◽  
Andrew J. Maule

To investigate the process of tubule formation for the cauliflower mosaic virus movement protein (CaMV MP), the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was fused to the MP to provide a vital marker for MP location after expression in insect cells. In contrast to the long tubular structures seen previously following baculovirus-based expression of the wild-type MP, the fusion protein produced only aggregates of fluorescing material in the cytoplasm. However, by co-expressing wild-type MP and GFP–MP, or by engineering their co-accumulation by introducing a foot-and-mouth disease virus 2A cleavage sequence between GFP and MP, long GFP-fluorescing tubules were formed. The experiments suggest that the presence of GFP at the N or C terminus of the tubule-forming domain of the CaMV MP places steric constraints upon the aggregation of the MP into a tubule but that this can be overcome by providing wild-type protein for inclusion in the aggregate.



2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (18) ◽  
pp. 4657-4670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-Ping Huang ◽  
Ying-Wen Huang ◽  
Yung-Jen Hsiao ◽  
Siou-Cen Li ◽  
Yau-Huei Hsu ◽  
...  

Abstract Autophagy plays a critical role in plants under biotic stress, including the response to pathogen infection. We investigated whether autophagy-related genes (ATGs) are involved in infection with Bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV), a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus. Initially, we observed that BaMV infection in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves upregulated the expression of ATGs but did not trigger cell death. The induction of ATGs, which possibly triggers autophagy, increased rather than diminished BaMV accumulation in the leaves, as revealed by gene knockdown and transient expression experiments. Furthermore, the inhibitor 3-methyladenine blocked autophagosome formation and the autophagy inducer rapamycin, which negatively and positively affected BaMV accumulation, respectively. Pull-down experiments with an antibody against orange fluorescent protein (OFP)-NbATG8f, an autophagosome marker protein, showed that both plus- and minus-sense BaMV RNAs could associate with NbATG8f. Confocal microscopy revealed that ATG8f-enriched vesicles possibly derived from chloroplasts contained both the BaMV viral RNA and its replicase. Thus, BaMV infection may induce the expression of ATGs possibly via autophagy to selectively engulf a portion of viral RNA-containing chloroplast. Virus-induced vesicles enriched with ATG8f could provide an alternative site for viral RNA replication or a shelter from the host silencing mechanism.



2002 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Candresse ◽  
O. Le Gall ◽  
B. Maisonneuve ◽  
S. German-Retana ◽  
E. Redondo

Seed certification and the use of cultivars containing one of two, probably allelic, recessive genes, mo11 and mo12, are the principal control methods for Lettuce mosaic virus (LMV) in lettuce. Although for a few LMV isolates, mo12 confers resistance with most isolates, the genes mo11 or mo12 confer a tolerance, and virus accumulation is readily detected in mo1-carrying plants. This phenotype complicates evaluation of the resistance status, in particular for mo11, for which there are no viral strains against which a true resistance is expressed. Two green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged viruses were constructed, derived from a non-resistance breaking isolate (LMV-0) and from a resistance-breaking isolate (LMV-E). An evaluation of 101 cultivars of known status was carried out with these recombinant viruses. Using the LMV-0-derived recombinant, identification of mo1-carrying cultivars was simple because, contrary to its wild-type parent, systemic movement of LMV-0-GFP was abolished in resistant plants. This assay detected four cases of misidentification of resistance status. In all these cases, further tests confirmed that the prior resistance status information was incorrect, so that a 100% correlation was observed between LMV-0-GFP behavior and the mo1 resistance status. Similarly, the LMV-E-derived recombinant allowed the identification of mo12 lettuce lines because its systemic movement was restricted in mo12 lines but not in susceptible or in mo11 lines. The tagged viruses were able to systemically invade another host, pea, irrespective of its resistance status against another member of the genus Potyvirus, Pea seed-borne mosaic virus. The use of these recombinant viruses could therefore greatly facilitate LMV resistance evaluation and speed up lettuce breeding programs.



2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahid Aslam Siddiqui ◽  
Cecilia Sarmiento ◽  
Erkki Truve ◽  
Harry Lehto ◽  
Kirsi Lehto

RNA silencing suppressor genes derived from six virus genera were transformed into Nicotiana benthamiana and N. tabacum plants. These suppressors were P1 of Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV), P1 of Cocksfoot mottle virus, P19 of Tomato bushy stunt virus, P25 of Potato virus X, HcPro of Potato virus Y (strain N), 2b of Cucumber mosaic virus (strain Kin), and AC2 of African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV). HcPro caused the most severe phenotypes in both Nicotiana spp. AC2 also produced severe effects in N. tabacum but a much milder phenotype in N. benthamiana, although both HcPro and AC2 affected the leaf tissues of the two Nicotiana spp. in similar ways, causing hyperplasia and hypoplasia, respectively. P1-RYMV caused high lethality in the N. benthamiana plants but only mild effects in the N. tabacum plants. Phenotypic alterations produced by the other transgenes were minor in both species. Interestingly, the suppressors had very different effects on crucifer-infecting Tobamovirus (crTMV) infections. AC2 enhanced both spread and brightness of the crTMV-green fluorescent protein (GFP) lesions, whereas 2b and both P1 suppressors enhanced spread but not brightness of these lesions. P19 promoted spread of the infection into new foci within the infiltrated leaf, whereas HcPro and P25 suppressed the spread of crTMV-GFP lesions.



2008 ◽  
Vol 147 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Brandner ◽  
Adrian Sambade ◽  
Emmanuel Boutant ◽  
Pascal Didier ◽  
Yves Mély ◽  
...  




2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (82) ◽  
pp. 15122-15124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan Zhou ◽  
Fengchi Wu ◽  
Man Wu ◽  
Ye Tian ◽  
Zhongwei Niu

Grafting green fluorescent protein-like chromophores in the 4 nm channel of tobacco mosaic virus greatly enhances its fluorescence emission.



2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1026-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhong Huang ◽  
Yu Han ◽  
Stephen H. Howell

Fusions between the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) movement protein (MP) induce the formation of fluorescent foci and surface tubules in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf mesophyll protoplasts. Tubules elongate coordinately and progressively in an assembly process approximately 6 to 12 h following transfection of protoplasts with GFP-MP constructs. Tubules are not formed in protoplasts transfected by GFP-MPER2A, a MP mutation that renders CaMV noninfectious. A small number of short tubules are formed on protoplasts transfected by GFP-MPN6 and GFP-MPN13, two second-site revertants of ER2A that partially restore infectivity. Protoplasts cotransfected with cyan fluorescent protein (CFP)-MPWT and GFP-MPER2A form tubules containing both MP fusions, indicating that although the GFP-MPER2A cannot induce tubule formation, GFP-MPER2A can coassemble or colocalize with CFP-MPWT in tubules. Thus, CaMV MP-induced tubule formation in protoplasts correlates closely with the infectivity of mutation ER2A and its revertants, suggesting that tubule-forming capacity in plant protoplasts reflects a process required for virus infection or movement.



Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document