Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Virology, February 2001, p. 1941-1948, Vol. 75, No. 4
Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des
Plantes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 67084 Strasbourg
Cedex, France,1 and Friedrich Miescher
Institute, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland2
Received 8 September 2000/Accepted 27 November 2000
RNA-1 of peanut clump pecluvirus (PCV) encodes N-terminally
overlapping proteins which contain helicase-like (P131) and
polymerase-like (P191) domains and is able to replicate in the absence
of RNA-2 in protoplasts of tobacco BY-2 cells. RNA-1 also
encodes P15, which is expressed via a subgenomic RNA. To
investigate the role of P15, we analyzed RNA accumulation in tobacco
BY-2 protoplasts inoculated with RNA-1 containing mutations in P15. For
all the mutants, the amount of progeny RNA-1 produced was significantly lower than that obtained for wild-type RNA-1. If RNA-2 was included in
the inoculum, the accumulation of both progeny RNAs was diminished, but
near-normal yields of both could be recovered if the inoculum was
supplemented with a small, chimeric viral replicon expressing P15,
demonstrating that P15 has an effect on viral RNA accumulation. To
further analyze the role of P15, transcripts were produced expressing
P15 fused to enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Following
inoculation to protoplasts, epifluorescence microscopy revealed that
P15 accumulated as spots around the nucleus and in the cytoplasm.
Intracellular sites of viral RNA synthesis were visualized by
laser scanning confocal microscopy of infected protoplasts labeled with
5-bromouridine 5'-triphosphate (BrUTP). BrUTP labeling also occured
in spots distributed within the cytoplasm and around the nucleus.
However, the BrUTP-labeled RNA and EGFP/P15 very rarely colocalized,
suggesting that P15 does not act primarily at sites of viral
replication but intervenes indirectly to control viral accumulation levels.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.4.1941-1948.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Peanut Clump Virus RNA-1-Encoded P15 Regulates Viral RNA
Accumulation but Is Not Abundant at Viral RNA Replication
Sites
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut de
Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. Phone: 33(0)388417200. Fax:
33(0)388614442. E-mail:
christiane.fritsch{at}ibmp-ulp.u-strasbg.fr.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»