This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Li, C.
Right arrow Articles by Hong, Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Li, C.
Right arrow Articles by Hong, Y.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, April 2009, p. 3540-3548, Vol. 83, No. 8
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02346-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A cis Element within Flowering Locus T mRNA Determines Its Mobility and Facilitates Trafficking of Heterologous Viral RNA{triangledown}

Chunyang Li,1,{dagger} Ke Zhang,1,2,{dagger} Xianwu Zeng,1,2 Stephen Jackson,1 Yu Zhou,1,2 and Yiguo Hong1*

Warwick HRI, University of Warwick, Warwick CV35 9EF, United Kingdom,1 Chengdu Institute of Biological Products, Chengdu, Sichuan 610063, China2

Received 11 November 2008/ Accepted 22 January 2009

The Arabidopsis flowering locus T (FT) gene encodes the mobile florigen essential for floral induction. While movement of the FT protein has been shown to occur within plants, systemic spread of FT mRNA remains to be unequivocally demonstrated. Utilizing novel RNA mobility assay vectors based on two distinct movement-defective viruses, Potato virus X and Turnip crinkle virus, and an agroinfiltration assay, we demonstrate that nontranslatable FT mRNA, independent of the FT protein, moves throughout Nicotiana benthamiana and mutant Arabidopsis plants and promotes systemic trafficking of viral and green fluorescence protein RNAs. Viral ectopic expression of FT induced flowering in the short-day N. tabacum Maryland Mammoth tobacco under long-day conditions. Recombinant Potato virus X bearing FT RNA spread and established systemic infection more quickly than the parental virus. The cis-acting element essential for RNA movement was mapped to the nucleotides 1 to 102 of the FT mRNA coding sequence. These data demonstrate that a plant self-mobile RNA molecule can mediate long-distance trafficking of heterologous RNAs and raise the possibility that FT RNA, along with the FT protein, may be involved in the spread of the floral stimulus throughout the plant.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Warwick HRI, University of Warwick, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EF, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 247 657 5027. Fax: 44 247 657 4500. E-mail: yiguo.hong{at}warwick.ac.uk

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 4 February 2009.

{dagger} C.L. and K.Z. contributed equally to this study.

Journal of Virology, April 2009, p. 3540-3548, Vol. 83, No. 8
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.02346-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»