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J Virol, April 1998, p. 3227-3234, Vol. 72, No. 4
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Viral Coat Protein Peptides with Limited Sequence Homology Bind Similar Domains of Alfalfa Mosaic Virus and Tobacco Streak Virus RNAs

Maud M. Swanson,¹ Patricia Ansel-McKinney,^2,3 Felicia Houser-Scott,³ Vidadi Yusibov,⁴ L. Sue Loesch-Fries,⁴ and Lee Gehrke^2,3,*

Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, United Kingdom DD2 5DA¹; Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115²; HST Division, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139³; and Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906⁴

Received 10 September 1997/Accepted 12 December 1997

An unusual and distinguishing feature of alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) and ilarviruses such as tobacco streak virus (TSV) is that the viral coat protein is required to activate the early stages of viral RNA replication, a phenomenon known as genome activation. AMV-TSV coat protein homology is limited; however, they are functionally interchangeable in activating virus replication. For example, TSV coat protein will activate AMV RNA replication and vice versa. Although AMV and TSV coat proteins have little obvious amino acid homology, we recently reported that they share an N-terminal RNA binding consensus sequence (Ansel-McKinney et al., EMBO J. 15:5077-5084, 1996). Here, we biochemically compare the binding of chemically synthesized peptides that include the consensus RNA binding sequence and lysine-rich (AMV) or arginine-rich (TSV) environment to 3'-terminal TSV and AMV RNA fragments. The arginine-rich TSV coat protein peptide binds viral RNA with lower affinity than the lysine-rich AMV coat protein peptides; however, the ribose moieties protected from hydroxyl radical attack by the two different peptides are localized in the same area of the predicted RNA structures. When included in an infectious inoculum, both AMV and TSV 3'-terminal RNA fragments inhibited AMV RNA replication, while variant RNAs unable to bind coat protein did not affect replication significantly. The data suggest that RNA binding and genome activation functions may reside in the consensus RNA binding sequence that is apparently unique to AMV and ilarvirus coat proteins.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: c/o HST Division, MIT Bldg. E25-545, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. Phone: (617) 253-7608. Fax: (617) 253-3459. E-mail: lgehrke{at}warren.med.harvard.edu.

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