scholarly journals Key Amino Acids for Pepper Vein Yellows Virus P0 Protein Pathogenicity, Gene Silencing, and Subcellular Localization

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lishuang Wang ◽  
Peijie Tian ◽  
Xiuling Yang ◽  
Xueping Zhou ◽  
Songbai Zhang ◽  
...  

Pepper vein yellows virus (PeVYV) is a newly recognized Polerovirus extracted from Chinese pepper. The symptoms of PeVYV-infested pepper plants comprise intervein yellow staining, leaf curl formation and other malformations, and leaf internodal shrinkage, but the roles of the viral proteins remain undetermined. The P0 protein of the genus Polerovirus has established post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) activity. This investigation focused on the PeVYV-encoded P0 protein and assessed its potential virulence capacity, PTGS activity, and tendencies to localize in the nucleus. This study revealed that P0 influenced the pathogenic properties of a specific heterologous potato virus X. In addition, P0 proteins impaired local gene silencing, although they did not regulate generalized gene silencing within Nicotiana benthamiana 16c plants. Furthermore, P0 proteins localized mainly in the nucleus, particularly in the nucleolus. P0 deletion mutagenesis demonstrated that the F-box motif (56–72 amino acids, AAs) of P0 was essential for symptom determination, inhibition of PTGS, and subcellular localization. Mutation analysis of the F-box motif of P0 protein indicated that AA 57 of the P0 protein was a pivotal site in symptom development and that AA 56 of the P0 protein was indispensable for inhibiting PTGS and subcellular localization. The outcomes obtained here suggest that further studies should be conducted on the molecular mechanisms of amino acids of the F-box domain of P0 protein in the interaction of PeVYV with plants.

2006 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunying Meng ◽  
Jun Chen ◽  
Jinrong Peng ◽  
Sek-Man Wong

Post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) and virus-encoded gene-silencing suppressors are defence and counterdefence strategies developed by host and pathogens during evolution. Using a green fluorescence protein-based transient suppression system, the coat protein (CP) of Hibiscus chlorotic ringspot virus (HCRSV) was identified as a strong gene-silencing suppressor. CP suppressed sense RNA-induced but not dsRNA-induced local and systemic PTGS. This is different from another virus in the genus Carmovirus, Turnip crinkle virus (TCV), the CP of which strongly suppresses dsRNA-induced PTGS. HCRSV CP domain deletion mutants lost their suppression function, indicating that the complete CP is essential for suppression of PTGS. When CP was expressed from a Potato virus X (PVX) vector, it was able to enhance the symptom severity and to increase the accumulation of PVX RNA. Here, it is proposed that HCRSV CP suppresses PTGS at the initiation step, which is different from TCV CP. In addition, a previous study demonstrated that CP mutants resulting from serial passage of HCRSV in its local lesion host also showed a significantly reduced suppression function, indicating that host-induced mutations that lead to avirulence of HCRSV in kenaf correlate with its reduced ability to suppress PTGS.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 362-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens A. Schröder ◽  
Pauline E. Jullien

Small RNAs gene regulation was first discovered about 20 years ago. It represents a conserve gene regulation mechanism across eukaryotes and is associated to key regulatory processes. In plants, small RNAs tightly regulate development, but also maintain genome stability and protect the plant against pathogens. Small RNA gene regulation in plants can be divided in two canonical pathways: Post-transcriptional Gene Silencing (PTGS) that results in transcript degradation and/or translational inhibition or Transcriptional Gene Silencing (TGS) that results in DNA methylation. In this review, we will focus on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We will provide a brief overview of the molecular mechanisms involved in canonical small RNA pathways as well as introducing more atypical pathways recently discovered.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1187
Author(s):  
Michael Wassenegger ◽  
Athanasios Dalakouras

Viroids are plant pathogenic, circular, non-coding, single-stranded RNAs (ssRNAs). Members of the Pospiviroidae family replicate in the nucleus of plant cells through double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) intermediates, thus triggering the host’s RNA interference (RNAi) machinery. In plants, the two RNAi pillars are Post-Transcriptional Gene Silencing (PTGS) and RNA-directed DNA Methylation (RdDM), and the latter has the potential to trigger Transcriptional Gene Silencing (TGS). Over the last three decades, the employment of viroid-based systems has immensely contributed to our understanding of both of these RNAi facets. In this review, we highlight the role of Pospiviroidae in the discovery of RdDM, expound the gradual elucidation through the years of the diverse array of RdDM’s mechanistic details and propose a revised RdDM model based on the cumulative amount of evidence from viroid and non-viroid systems.


Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miryam Pérez-Cañamás ◽  
Elizabeth Hevia ◽  
Carmen Hernández

DNA cytosine methylation is one of the main epigenetic mechanisms in higher eukaryotes and is considered to play a key role in transcriptional gene silencing. In plants, cytosine methylation can occur in all sequence contexts (CG, CHG, and CHH), and its levels are controlled by multiple pathways, including de novo methylation, maintenance methylation, and demethylation. Modulation of DNA methylation represents a potentially robust mechanism to adjust gene expression following exposure to different stresses. However, the potential involvement of epigenetics in plant-virus interactions has been scarcely explored, especially with regard to RNA viruses. Here, we studied the impact of a symptomless viral infection on the epigenetic status of the host genome. We focused our attention on the interaction between Nicotiana benthamiana and Pelargonium line pattern virus (PLPV, family Tombusviridae), and analyzed cytosine methylation in the repetitive genomic element corresponding to ribosomal DNA (rDNA). Through a combination of bisulfite sequencing and RT-qPCR, we obtained data showing that PLPV infection gives rise to a reduction in methylation at CG sites of the rDNA promoter. Such a reduction correlated with an increase and decrease, respectively, in the expression levels of some key demethylases and of MET1, the DNA methyltransferase responsible for the maintenance of CG methylation. Hypomethylation of rDNA promoter was associated with a five-fold augmentation of rRNA precursor levels. The PLPV protein p37, reported as a suppressor of post-transcriptional gene silencing, did not lead to the same effects when expressed alone and, thus, it is unlikely to act as suppressor of transcriptional gene silencing. Collectively, the results suggest that PLPV infection as a whole is able to modulate host transcriptional activity through changes in the cytosine methylation pattern arising from misregulation of methyltransferases/demethylases balance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganna Reshetnyak ◽  
Jonathan M. Jacobs ◽  
Florence Auguy ◽  
Coline Sciallano ◽  
Lisa Claude ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTNon-coding small RNAs (sRNA) act as mediators of gene silencing and regulate plant growth, development and stress responses. Early insights into plant sRNAs established a role in antiviral defense and they are now extensively studied across plant-microbe interactions. Here, sRNA sequencing discovered a class of sRNA in rice (Oryza sativa) specifically associated with foliar diseases caused by Xanthomonas oryzae bacteria. Xanthomonas-induced small RNAs (xisRNAs) loci were distinctively upregulated in response to diverse virulent strains at an early stage of infection producing a single duplex of 20-22nt sRNAs. xisRNAs production was dependent on the Type III secretion system, a major bacterial virulence factor for host colonization. xisRNA loci overlap with annotated transcripts sequences often encoding protein kinase domain proteins. A number of the corresponding rice cis-genes have documented functions in immune signaling and some xisRNA loci coincide with the coding sequence of a conserved kinase motif. xisRNAs exhibit features of small interfering RNAs and their biosynthesis depend on canonical components OsDCL1 and OsHEN1. xisRNA induction possibly mediates post-transcriptional gene silencing but they do not broadly suppress cis-genes expression on the basis of mRNA-seq data. Overall, our results identify a group of unusual sRNAs with a potential role in plant-microbe interactions.


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