scholarly journals RNA Silencing Suppression by a Second Copy of the P1 Serine Protease of Cucumber Vein Yellowing Ipomovirus, a Member of the Family Potyviridae That Lacks the Cysteine Protease HCPro

2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (20) ◽  
pp. 10055-10063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Valli ◽  
Ana Montserrat Martín-Hernández ◽  
Juan José López-Moya ◽  
Juan Antonio García

ABSTRACT The P1 protein of viruses of the family Potyviridae is a serine proteinase, which is highly variable in length and sequence, and its role in the virus infection cycle is not clear. One of the proposed activities of P1 is to assist HCPro, the product that viruses of the genus Potyvirus use to counteract antiviral defense mediated by RNA silencing. Indeed, an HCPro-coding region is present in all the genomes of members of the genera Potyvirus, Rymovirus, and Tritimovirus that have been sequenced. However, it was recently reported that a sequence coding for HCPro is lacking in the genome of Cucumber vein yellowing virus (CVYV), a member of the genus Ipomovirus, the fourth monopartite genus of the family. In this study, we provide further evidence that P1 enhances the activity of HCPro in members of the genus Potyvirus and show that it is duplicated in the ipomovirus CVYV. The two CVYV P1 copies are arranged in tandem, and the second copy (P1b) has RNA silencing suppression activity. CVYV P1b suppressed RNA silencing induced either by sense green fluorescent protein (GFP) mRNA or by a GFP inverted repeat RNA, indicating that CVYV P1b acts downstream of the formation of double-stranded RNA. CVYV P1b also suppressed local silencing in agroinfiltrated patches of transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana line 16c and delayed its propagation to the neighboring cells. However, neither the short-distance nor long-distance systemic spread of silencing of the GFP transgene was completely blocked by CVYV P1b. CVYV P1b and P1-HCPro from the potyvirus Plum pox virus showed very similar behaviors in all the assays carried out, suggesting that evolution has found a way to counteract RNA silencing by similar mechanisms using very different proteins in viruses of the same family.

2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. 3149-3154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene V. Ryabov ◽  
Rene van Wezel ◽  
John Walsh ◽  
Yiguo Hong

ABSTRACT A Turnip crinkle virus (TCV)-based system was devised to discriminate cell-to-cell and systemic long-distance spread of RNA silencing in plants. Modified TCV-GFPΔCP, constructed by replacing the coat protein (CP) gene with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene, replicated in single epidermal cells but failed to move from cell to cell in Nicotiana benthamiana. Mechanical inoculation of TCV-GFPΔCP induced effective RNA silencing in single epidermal cells which spread from cell to cell to form silenced foci on inoculated leaves, but no long-distance systemic spread of RNA silencing occurred. Agroinfiltration of TCV-GFPΔCP was, however, able to induce both local and systemic RNA silencing. TCV coinfection arrested TCV-GFPΔCP-mediated local induction of RNA silencing. Possible mechanisms involved in cell-to-cell and long-distance spread of RNA silencing are discussed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 896-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit C. Segers ◽  
Rene van Wezel ◽  
Xuemei Zhang ◽  
Yiguo Hong ◽  
Donald L. Nuss

ABSTRACT Virulence-attenuating hypoviruses of the species Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) encode a papain-like protease, p29, that shares similarities with the potyvirus-encoded suppressor of RNA silencing HC-Pro. We now report that hypovirus CHV1-EP713-encoded p29 can suppress RNA silencing in the natural host, the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. Hairpin RNA-triggered silencing was suppressed in C. parasitica strains expressing p29, and transformation of a transgenic green fluorescent protein (GFP)-silenced strain with p29 resulted in an increased number of transformants with elevated GFP expression levels. The CHV1-EP713 p29 protein was also shown to suppress both virus-induced and agroinfiltration-induced RNA silencing and systemic spread of silencing in GFP-expressing transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana line 16c plants. The demonstration that a mycovirus encodes a suppressor of RNA silencing provides circumstantial evidence that RNA silencing in fungi may serve as an antiviral defense mechanism. The observation that a phylogenetically conserved protein of related plant and fungal viruses functions as a suppressor of RNA silencing in both fungi and plants indicates a level of conservation of the mechanisms underlying RNA silencing in these two groups of organisms.


2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (7) ◽  
pp. 1601-1611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varvara I. Maliogka ◽  
María Calvo ◽  
Alberto Carbonell ◽  
Juan Antonio García ◽  
Adrian Valli

HCPro, the RNA-silencing suppressor (RSS) of viruses belonging to the genus Potyvirus in the family Potyviridae, is a multifunctional protein presumably involved in all essential steps of the viral infection cycle. Recent studies have shown that plum pox potyvirus (PPV) HCPro can be replaced successfully by cucumber vein yellowing ipomovirus P1b, a sequence-unrelated RSS from a virus of the same family. In order to gain insight into the requirement of a particular RSS to establish a successful potyviral infection, we tested the ability of different heterologous RSSs from both plant- and animal-infecting viruses to substitute for HCPro. Making use of engineered PPV chimeras, we show that PPV HCPro can be replaced functionally by some, but not all, unrelated RSSs, including the NS1 protein of the mammal-infecting influenza A virus. Interestingly, the capacity of a particular RSS to replace HCPro does not correlate strictly with its RNA silencing-suppression strength. Altogether, our results suggest that not all suppression strategies are equally suitable for efficient escape of PPV from the RNA-silencing machinery. The approach followed here, based on using PPV chimeras in which an under-consideration RSS substitutes for HCPro, could further help to study the function of diverse RSSs in a ‘highly sensitive’ RNA-silencing context, such as that taking place in plant cells during the process of a viral infection.


2007 ◽  
Vol 88 (10) ◽  
pp. 2846-2851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Dietrich ◽  
Qusai Al Abdallah ◽  
Lara Lintl ◽  
Agnes Pietruszka ◽  
Edgar Maiss

The effect of a recombination event in the genomic 3′ end on the biological properties and competitiveness of plum pox virus (PPV) was investigated. Therefore, a fragment spanning the coat protein (CP) coding region and a part of the 3′ non-translated region of a non-aphid-transmissible strain of PPV (PPV-NAT) was replaced by the corresponding region of a PPV sour cherry isolate (PPV-SoC). The resulting chimera (PPV-NAT/SoC) caused severe symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana, resembling those of PPV-NAT. In mixed infections with either of the parental viruses, the chimera PPV-NAT/SoC was less competitive. Labelling experiments with DsRed showed that PPV-NAT/SoC (PPV-NAT/SoC-red) moved more slowly from cell to cell than PPV-NAT (PPV-NAT-red). In mixed infections of PPV-NAT/SoC-red with a green fluorescent protein-expressing PPV-NAT (PPV-NAT-AgfpS), spatial separation of the viruses was observed. These data suggest that, in PPV infections, symptom severity and competitiveness are independent aspects and that spatial separation may contribute to the displacement of a recombinant virus.


2007 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 1005-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Varrelmann ◽  
Edgar Maiss ◽  
Ruth Pilot ◽  
Laszlo Palkovics

Helper component proteinase (HC-Pro) of Plum pox virus is a multifunctional potyvirus protein that has been examined intensively. In addition to its involvement in aphid transmission, genome amplification and long-distance movement, it is also one of the better-studied plant virus suppressors of RNA silencing. The first systematic analysis using pentapeptide-insertion scanning mutagenesis of the silencing suppression function of a potyvirus HC-Pro is presented here. Sixty-three in-frame insertion mutants, each containing five extra amino acids inserted randomly within the HC-Pro protein, were analysed for their ability to suppress transgene-induced RNA silencing using Agrobacterium infiltration in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants expressing green fluorescent protein. A functional map was obtained, consisting of clearly defined regions with different classes of silencing-suppression activity (wild-type, restricted and disabled). This map confirmed that the N-terminal part of the protein, which is indispensable for aphid transmission, is dispensable for silencing suppression and supports the involvement of the central region in silencing suppression, in addition to its role in maintenance of genome amplification and synergism with other viruses. Moreover, evidence is provided that the C-terminal part of the protein, previously known to be necessary mainly for proteolytic activity, also participates in silencing suppression. Pentapeptide-insertion scanning mutagenesis has been shown to be a fast and powerful tool to functionally characterize plant virus proteins.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1377
Author(s):  
Adriano M. Gigante ◽  
Francisco Olivença ◽  
Maria João Catalão ◽  
Paula Leandro ◽  
José Moniz-Pereira ◽  
...  

Double-stranded DNA bacteriophages end their lytic cycle by disrupting the host cell envelope, which allows the release of the virion progeny. Each phage must synthesize lysis proteins that target each cell barrier to phage release. In addition to holins, which permeabilize the cytoplasmic membrane, and endolysins, which disrupt the peptidoglycan (PG), mycobacteriophages synthesize a specific lysis protein, LysB, capable of detaching the outer membrane from the complex cell wall of mycobacteria. The family of LysB proteins is highly diverse, with many members presenting an extended N-terminus. The N-terminal region of mycobacteriophage Ms6 LysB shows structural similarity to the PG-binding domain (PGBD) of the φKZ endolysin. A fusion of this region with enhanced green fluorescent protein (Ms6LysBPGBD-EGFP) was shown to bind to Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium vaccae, Mycobacterium bovis BGC and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra cells pretreated with SDS or Ms6 LysB. In pulldown assays, we demonstrate that Ms6 LysB and Ms6LysBPGBD-EGFP bind to purified peptidoglycan of M. smegmatis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis, demonstrating affinity to PG of the A1γ chemotype. An infection assay with an Ms6 mutant producing a truncated version of LysB lacking the first 90 amino acids resulted in an abrupt lysis. These results clearly demonstrate that the N-terminus of Ms6 LysB binds to the PG.


2000 ◽  
Vol 113 (18) ◽  
pp. 3151-3159 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Blum ◽  
D.J. Stephens ◽  
I. Schulz

The mechanism by which soluble proteins without sorting motifs are transported to the cell surface is not clear. Here we show that soluble green fluorescent protein (GFP) targeted to the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum but lacking any known retrieval, retention or targeting motifs, was accumulated in the lumen of the ERGIC if cells were kept at reduced temperature. Upon activation of anterograde transport by rewarming of cells, lumenal GFP stained a microtubule-dependent, pre-Golgi tubulo-vesicular network that served as transport structure between peripheral ERGIC-elements and the perinuclear Golgi complex. Individual examples of these tubular elements up to 20 microm in length were observed. Time lapse imaging indicated rapid anterograde flow of soluble lumenal GFP through this network. Transport tubules, stained by lumenal GFP, segregated rapidly from COPI-positive membranes after transport activation. A transmembrane cargo marker, the temperature sensitive glycoprotein of the vesicular stomatitis virus, ts-045 G, is also not present in tubules which contained the soluble cargo marker lum-GFP. These results suggest a role for pre-Golgi vesicular tubular membranes in long distance anterograde transport of soluble cargo. http://www.biologists.com/JCS/movies/jcs1334.html


2000 ◽  
Vol 113 (22) ◽  
pp. 3921-3930 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.H. Kohler ◽  
P. Schwille ◽  
W.W. Webb ◽  
M.R. Hanson

Dynamic tubular projections emanate from plastids in certain cells of vascular plants and are especially prevalent in non-photosynthetic cells. Tubules sometimes connect two or more different plastids and can extend over long distances within a cell, observations that suggest that the tubules may function in distribution of molecules within, to and from plastids. In a new application of two-photon excitation (2PE) fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), we separated diffusion of fluorescent molecules from active transport in vivo. We quantified the velocities of diffusion versus active transport of green fluorescent protein (GFP) within plastid tubules and in the cytosol in vivo. GFP moves by 3-dimensional (3-D) diffusion both in the cytosol and plastid tubules, but diffusion in tubules is about 50 times and 100 times slower than in the cytosol and an aqueous solution, respectively. Unexpectedly larger GFP units within plastid tubules exhibited active transport with a velocity of about 0.12 microm/second. Active transport might play an important role in the long-distance distribution of large numbers of molecules within the highly viscous stroma of plastid tubules.


2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 1329-1336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Bucher ◽  
Titia Sijen ◽  
Peter de Haan ◽  
Rob Goldbach ◽  
Marcel Prins

ABSTRACT Posttranscriptional silencing of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene in Nicotiana benthamiana plants was suppressed when these plants were infected with Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), a plant-infecting member of the Bunyaviridae. Infection with TSWV resulted in complete reactivation of GFP expression, similar to the case for Potato virus Y, but distinct from that for Cucumber mosaic virus, two viruses known to carry genes encoding silencing suppressor proteins. Agrobacterium-based leaf injections with individual TSWV genes identified the NSS gene to be responsible for the RNA silencing-suppressing activity displayed by this virus. The absence of short interfering RNAs in NSS-expressing leaf sectors suggests that the tospoviral NSS protein interferes with the intrinsic RNA silencing present in plants. Suppression of RNA silencing was also observed when the NS3 protein of the Rice hoja blanca tenuivirus, a nonenveloped negative-strand virus, was expressed. These results indicate that plant-infecting negative-strand RNA viruses carry a gene for a suppressor of RNA silencing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Qin ◽  
Wentao Shen ◽  
Zhongfa Tang ◽  
Weiyao Hu ◽  
Lingna Shangguan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Potyviridae is the largest family of plant-infecting RNA viruses and includes many agriculturally and economically important viral pathogens. The viruses in the family, known as potyvirids, possess single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genomes with polyprotein processing as a gene expression strategy. The N-terminal regions of potyvirid polyproteins vary greatly in sequence. Previously, we identified a novel virus species within the family, Areca palm necrotic spindle-spot virus (ANSSV), which was predicted to encode two cysteine proteases, HCPro1 and HCPro2, in tandem at the N-terminal region. Here, we present evidence showing self-cleavage activity of these two proteins and define their cis-cleavage sites. We demonstrate that HCPro2 is a viral suppressor of RNA silencing (VSR), and both the variable N-terminal and conserved C-terminal (protease domain) moieties have antisilencing activity. Intriguingly, the N-terminal region of HCPro1 also has RNA silencing suppression activity, which is, however, suppressed by its C-terminal protease domain, leading to the functional divergence of HCPro1 and HCPro2 in RNA silencing suppression. Moreover, the deletion of HCPro1 or HCPro2 in a newly created infectious clone abolishes viral infection, and the deletion mutants cannot be rescued by addition of corresponding counterparts of a potyvirus. Altogether, these data suggest that the two closely related leader proteases of ANSSV have evolved differential and essential functions to concertedly maintain viral viability. IMPORTANCE The Potyviridae represent the largest group of known plant RNA viruses and account for more than half of the viral crop damage worldwide. The leader proteases of viruses within the family vary greatly in size and arrangement and play key roles during the infection. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the presence of a distinct pattern of leader proteases, HCPro1 and HCPro2 in tandem, in a newly identified member within the family. Moreover, HCPro1 and HCPro2, which are closely related and typically characterized with a short size, have evolved contrasting RNA silencing suppression activity and seem to function in a coordinated manner to maintain viral infectivity. Altogether, the new knowledge fills a missing piece in the evolutionary relationship history of potyvirids and improves our understanding of the diversification of potyvirid genomes.


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