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J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.02518-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

A novel methyltransferase methylates cucumber mosaic virus 1a protein and promotes systemic spread

School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, 1, 5-ga, Anam-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: khpaek95{at}korea.ac.kr.

	Abstract

In the mammalian and yeast system, methyltransferases have been implicated in regulation of diverse processes such as protein-protein interactions, protein localization, signal transduction, RNA processing, and transcription. The cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) 1a protein is essential not only for virus replication but also for movement. We have identified a novel gene encoding methyltransferase that interacts with the CMV 1a protein using a yeast two-hybrid system from tobacco plants and designated it Tcoi1 (Tobacco CMV 1a-interacting protein 1). Tcoi1 specifically interacted with the methyltransferase domain of CMV 1a and the expression of Tcoi1 was increased by CMV inoculation. Biochemical studies revealed that its interaction with CMV 1a protein was direct and that Tcoi1 methylated CMV 1a protein both in vitro and in vivo. The CMV 1a binding activity of Tcoi1 is in the C-terminal domain, which shows the methyltransferase activity. Overexpression of Tcoi1 enhanced the CMV infection while reduced expression of Tcoi1 decreased virus infectivity. These results suggest that Tcoi1 controls the propagation of CMV through an interaction with the CMV 1a protein.