Groundnut rosette disease virus complex: biology and molecular biology.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M E Taliansky.
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A full-length cDNA corresponding to the RNA genome of Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) was modified by inserting cDNA that encoded the jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP) into the P5 gene near its 3' end. Nicotiana benthamiana protoplasts electroporated with plasmid DNA containing this cDNA behind the 35S RNA promoter of Cauliflower mosaic virus became infected with the recombinant virus (PLRV-GFP). Up to 5% of transfected protoplasts showed GFP-specific fluorescence. Progeny virus particles were morphologically indistinguishable from those of wild-type PLRV but, unlike PLRV particles, they bound to grids coated with antibodies to GFP. Aphids fed on extracts of these protoplasts transmitted PLRV-GFP to test plants, as shown by specific fluorescence in some vascular tissue and epidermal cells and subsequent systemic infection. In plants agroinfected with PLRV-GFP cDNA in pBIN19, some cells became fluorescent and systemic infections developed. However, after either type of inoculation, fluorescence was mostly restricted to single cells and the only PLRV genome detected in systemically infected tissues lacked some or all of the inserted GFP cDNA, apparently because of naturally occurring deletions. Thus, intact PLRV-GFP was unable to move from cell to cell. Nevertheless, PLRV-GFP has novel potential for exploring the initial stages of PLRV infection.
The phenomenon of trans-complementation of cell-to-cell movement between plant positive-strand RNA viruses is discussed with an emphasis on tobamoviruses. Attention is focused on complementation between tobamoviruses (coding for a single movement protein, MP) and two groups of viruses that contain the triple block of MP genes and require four (potato virus X) or three (barley stripe mosaic virus) proteins for cell-to-cell movement. The highlights of complementation data obtained by different experimental approaches are given, including (i) double infections with movement-deficient (dependent) and helper viruses; (ii) infections with recombinant viral genomes bearing a heterologous MP gene; (iii) complementation of a movement-deficient virus in transgenic plants expressing the MP of a helper virus; and (iv) co-bombardment of plant tissues with the cDNAs of a movement-dependent virus genome and the MP gene of a helper virus.
Transport of plant viruses from cell to cell typically involves one or more viral proteins that supply specific cell-to-cell movement functions. Long-distance transport of viruses through the vascular system is a less well understood process with requirements different from those of cell-to-cell movement. Usually viral coat protein (CP) is required for long-distance movement, but groundnut rosette umbravirus (GRV) does not code for a CP. However, this virus moves efficiently from cell to cell and long distance. We demonstrate here that the protein encoded by ORF3 of GRV can functionally replace the CP of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) for long-distance movement. In spite of low levels of virus RNA accumulation in infected cells, chimeric TMV with a replacement of the CP gene by GRV ORF3 was able to move rapidly through the phloem. Moreover, this chimeric virus complemented long-distance movement of another CP-deficient TMV derivative expressing the gene encoding the green fluorescent protein. Thus, the GRV ORF3-encoded protein represents a class of trans-acting long-distance movement factors that can facilitate trafficking of an unrelated viral RNA.
Groundnut rosette disease is caused by a complex of agents comprising groundnut rosette umbravirus (GRV), GRV satellite RNA (sat-RNA)groundnut rosette assistor luteovirus (GRAV). Both GRAV and GRV sat-RNA are needed for GRV to be aphid transmissible. To understand the role of GRAVGRV sat-RNA in the aphid transmission of GRV, encapsidation of GRV genomicsatellite RNAs has been studied using transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants expressing GRAV coat protein (CP). GRAV CP expressed from a transgene was shown to package GRV genomicsatellite RNAs efficiently, giving a high yield of transcapsidated virus particles. GRV sat-RNA was absolutely essential for this process. GRV genomic RNA was not encapsidated by GRAV CP in the absence of the sat-RNA. Using different mutants of GRV sat-RNA, it was found that some property of full-length satellite RNA molecules, such as size or specific conformation rather than potential open reading frames, was required for the production of virus particles. A correlation between the ability of sat-RNA to stimulate encapsidation of GRV RNA by GRAV CPits capacity to promote aphid transmission of GRV was observed.
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The proteins encoded by open reading frames (ORF) 3 and 4 of groundnut rosette umbravirus (GRV) were expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana as fusions with green fluorescent protein (GFP) from modified potato virus X (PVX) and tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) vectors. Regardless of which plant virus vector was used, GFP fused to the ORF3 protein accumulated in large cytoplasmic inclusion bodies and in nucleoli, whereas GFP fused to the ORF4 protein was found in cell walls close to plasmodesmata. Cell-to-cell movement of PVX requires three proteins encoded by the triple gene block (TGB) and also the coat protein (CP). However, when GRV ORF4 was substituted for the PVX CP gene, the hybrid virus was able to move normally in inoculated leaves but not into noninoculated leaves. In contrast, when GRV ORF4 was substituted for the TGB, or for both the TGB and the CP gene, movement of the hybrid viruses was limited to a few epidermal cells neighboring the infection site. Thus, the GRV ORF4 protein can replace the movement proteins of PVX for some of their functions.
Symptom production in groundnut plants infected with groundnut rosette virus (GRV) depends on the presence of satellite RNA (sat-RNA) in the GRV culture, and sat-RNA variants that induce only mild symptoms are known. One such variant drastically diminished the replication of GRV genomic RNA in infected Nicotiana benthamiana plants. This down-regulating ability did not involve either of the two open reading frames in the sat-RNA but was controlled by a region near its 5' end, which is required for sat-RNA replication. When N. benthamiana plants were inoculated with GRV and the mild satellite and challenged by inoculation with a GRV isolate (YB) containing a sat-RNA that induces yellow blotch symptoms, no symptoms appeared and little GRV genomic RNA or sat-RNA was detected in the plants, provided the two inoculations were no more than 2 days apart. A GRV isolate containing a sat-RNA that neither induces symptoms in N. benthamiana nor affects genomic RNA accumulation also provided protection against yellow blotch symptom production if inoculated before or up to 2 days after isolate YB. However, in this case protection ws incomplete and both GRV RNA and sat-RNA accumulated to normal levels. It is suggested that sequences from the mild sat-RNA may provide a novel source of resistance against rosette disease.
Isolates of groundnut rosette umbravirus (GRV) contain a satellite RNA (sat-RNA), about 900 nucleotides (nt) in length, different variants of which are responsible for the symptoms of different forms of rosette disease in groundnuts and, in the particular instance of sat-RNA YB3b, for the production of yellow blotch symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana. Sat-RNA YB3b does not affect the accumulation of GRV genomic or subgenomic RNAs in infected plants. Replication of sat-RNA YB3b and induction of yellow blotch symptoms do not require the production of any sat-RNA-encoded proteins. Experiments with deletion mutants identified three functional untranslated elements in sat-RNA YB3b. One (designated R) comprises nt 47-281, is essential for sat-RNA replication and appears to be cis-acting. The other two (designated A and B) comprise nt 280-470 and 629-849, respectively, are both involved in yellow blotch symptom production and can act in trans. Element A contains the determinant that is unique to sat-RNA YB3b. The process of symptom induction by sat-RNA YB3b apparently involves a novel type of specific interaction of two untranslated RNA elements, which can complement each other, with a host factor or factors.
Complementary DNA clones representing the entire genome of groundnut rosette umbravirus (GRV) were obtained and sequenced. GRV RNA comprises 4019 nucleotides and contains four large open reading frames (ORFs). The second ORF from the 5' end includes sequences that encode motifs characteristic of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases and is probably expressed by a -1 frameshift mechanism as a fusion protein with the product of the 5'-most ORF. The other two ORFs are almost completely overlapping in different reading frames, and are probably expressed from subgenomic RNA. One of the putative products has significant sequence similarity with viral movement proteins. None of the putative proteins encoded by GRV RNA seems to be a structural protein. In genome organization and in the amino acid sequences of its potential products, the RNA of GRV is similar to that of carrot mottle mimic umbravirus, and to the umbravirus-like RNA-2 of pea enation mosaic virus.
Direct evidence is presented for a host-specific role of the cucumovirus capsid protein in long-distance movement within infected plants. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a systemic host for cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV). Tomato aspermy cucumovirus, strain 1 (1-TAV), multiplied to the levels of CMV (i.e., replicated, moved from cell to cell, and formed infectious particles) in the inoculated leaves of cucumbers but was completely unable to spread systemically. The defective long-distance systemic movement of 1-TAV was complemented by CMV in mixed infections. Coinfection of cucumbers with 1-TAV RNA with various combinations of transcripts from full-length cDNA clones of CMV genomic RNA 1, RNA2, and RNA3 showed that CMV RNA3 alone complemented 1-TAV long-distance movement. We obtained mutants containing mutations in the two open reading frames in CMV RNA3 encoding the 3a protein and the capsid protein (CP), both of which are necessary for cell-to-cell movement of CMV. Complementation experiments with mutant CMV RNA3 showed that only 3a protein mutants, i.e., those with an intact CP, complemented the long-distance movement of 1-TAV in cucumbers. Since CMV and TAV have common systemic host plants, the results presented here are strong evidence for an active, host-specific function of the CPs of these two cucumoviruses for long-distance spread in the phloem. The results also suggest that the plasmodesmata in the vascular system and/or at the boundary between the mesophyll and the vascular system, involved in long-distance movement through the phloem, and those in the mesophyll, involved in cell-to-cell movement, differ functionally.
Transgenic plants producing the 30K temperature-sensitive transport protein (TP) of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) mutant Ni2519 (affecting cell-to-cell transport) were found to: (i) be susceptible to wild-type TMV U1 at 24 degrees C (a permissive temperature for Ni2519 TP), (ii) acquire a certain level of resistance to TMV U1 accumulation when maintained at 33 degrees C (a non-permissive temperature for Ni2519 TP) and (iii) lose the resistance to wild-type TMV after their transfer from 33 degrees C to 24 degrees C. It is suggested that reversible temperature-dependent conformational changes in Ni2519 TP are responsible for these phenomena and that production of a TP which is only partially functional in transgenic plants confers on these plants a resistance to the virus owing to reduction of the level of cell-to-cell transport. Transgenic tobacco plants producing the 32K TP of brome mosaic virus (BMV) acquired resistance to TMV U1 suggesting that BMV TP is partially functional in tobacco plants.
During an infection with cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) both virion assembly and formation of tubules associated with plasmodesmata are required for cell-to-cell movement. These functions are encoded by the M-RNA of CPMV. To study the mechanism of CPMV movement, mutant N123 was used in complementation studies with sunn-hemp mosaic virus (SHMV), a legume-infecting tobamovirus. Previous studies have shown that N123 fails to spread in cowpea plants because of mutation(s) in its M-RNA. However, the mutant was efficiently replicated in cowpea protoplasts, in which virions were formed and tubular transport structures were induced. After high-dose inoculation of cowpeas with N123, only a few infected protoplasts could be isolated, indicating that cell-to-cell transport of N123 was greatly impaired, if not completely abolished. Upon coinoculation with SHMV, mutant N123 infected cowpea plants systemically and accumulated to levels which were comparable to those of wild-type CPMV. In contrast, separate B-RNA of CPMV and a CPMV deletion mutant lacking the tubule-inducing function, were complemented by SHMV to only low levels. It is concluded that SHMV-facilitated spread of CPMV in the non-virion tobamovirus mode is inefficient and that spread of mutant N123 is probably in the CPMV mode, SHMV providing an as yet unidentified helper function.
Exogenous human interferon 2 (IFN) and 2'-5' oligoadenylates (2-5A) have been shown to cause at least a dual physiological effect in tobacco and wheat: (i) increased cytokinin activity and (ii) induced synthesis of numerous proteins, among which members of two groups of stress proteins have been identified, namely pathogenesis-related (PR) and heat shock (HS) proteins. These effects were observed only by low concentrations of these substances: IFN at 0.1-1 u/ml and 2-5A at 1-10 nM.
We have reported previously that tobamoviruses enable the transport of red clover mottle comovirus (RCMV) in tobacco plants normally resistant to RCMV. Here we show that RCMV transport does not take place in transgenic tobacco plants (line To-4) producing the 30K transport protein of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), whereas the transport of the TMV Ls1 mutant, the cell-to-cell movement of which is temperature sensitive, is complemented in these plants. However, RCMV transport is observed when these transgenic plants are infected with both RCMV and TMV Ls1 at the non-permissive temperature (33 degrees C). It is suggested that (i) the hypothetical modification of transgenic plant plasmodesmata by the TMV 30K transport protein can specifically mediate the cell-to-cell movement of the homologous virus (TMV), but is insufficient to mediate RCMV transport; (ii) the presence of the full-length TMV genome or a certain TMV-encoded product(s) besides the 30K protein is essential for complementation of the RCMV transport function. The possibility that line To-4 might provide enough 30K protein to complement TMV Ls1 but not RCMV cannot be ruled out. During double infection the mutant 30K protein may, in concert with the wild-type 30K protein, provide the transport function for RCMV.
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The sequence homology between individual RNA species of three-component Norwich strain of BSMV (BSMV-N) has been studied by kinetic hybridization analysis using complementary DNAs obtained for each of the three BSMV-N RNA species by the method of Taylor et al. (1976). No significant sequence homology could be detected between RNA 1, on the one hand, and RNA2 and RNA3, on the other, whereas RNA2 and RNA3 were found to be highly homologous.