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Journal of Virology, January 2001, p. 19-25, Vol. 75, No. 1
Département de Biochimie,
Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec J1H 5N4,
Canada
Received 23 March 2000/Accepted 30 August 2000
Peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd) is a circular RNA pathogen that
replicates in a DNA-independent fashion via a rolling circle mechanism.
PLMVd has been shown to self-ligate in vitro primarily via the
formation of 2',5'-phosphodiester bonds; however, in vivo the
occurrence and necessity of this nonenzymatic mechanism are not
evident. Here, we unequivocally report the presence of
2',5'-phosphodiester bonds at the ligation site of circular PLMVd
strands isolated from infected peach leaves. These bonds serve to close
the linear conformers (i.e., intermediates), yielding circular ones.
Furthermore, these bonds are shown to stabilize the replicational
circular templates, resulting in a significant advantage in terms of
viroid viability. Although the mechanism responsible for the formation of these 2',5'-phosphodiester bonds remains to be elucidated, a
hypothesis describing in vivo nonenzymatic self-ligation is proposed.
Most significantly, our results clearly show that 2',5'-phosphodiester bonds are still present in nature and that they are of biological importance.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.1.19-25.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Natural 2',5'-Phosphodiester Bonds Found at the
Ligation Sites of Peach Latent Mosaic Viroid
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Départment
de Biochimie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec
J1H 5N4, Canada. Phone: (819) 564-5310. Fax: (819) 564-5340. E-mail:
jperre01{at}courrier.usherb.ca.
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