Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.

Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein (TMV MP) is essential for virus spread between cells. To accomplish its task, TMV MP binds viral RNA, interacts with components of the cytoskeleton, and increases the size exclusion limit (SEL) of plasmodesmata. Plasmodesmata are gated intercellular channels tha...

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Main Authors: Jian Wu, David M Bisaro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-12-01
Series:PLoS Pathogens
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1011062
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author Jian Wu
David M Bisaro
author_facet Jian Wu
David M Bisaro
author_sort Jian Wu
collection DOAJ
description Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein (TMV MP) is essential for virus spread between cells. To accomplish its task, TMV MP binds viral RNA, interacts with components of the cytoskeleton, and increases the size exclusion limit (SEL) of plasmodesmata. Plasmodesmata are gated intercellular channels that allow passage of small molecules and macromolecules, including RNA and protein, between plant cells. Moreover, plasmodesmata are diverse and those connecting different cell types appear to have unique mechanisms to regulate macromolecular trafficking, which likely contributes to the establishment of distinct cell boundaries. Consequently, TMV MP might be competent to mediate RNA transport through some but not all plasmodesmal gates. Due to a lack of viral mutants defective for movement between specific cell types, the ability of TMV MP in this regard is incompletely understood. In contrast, a number of trafficking impaired Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) mutants have been identified. PSTVd is a systemically infectious non-coding RNA that nevertheless can perform all functions required for replication as well as cell-to-cell and systemic spread. Previous studies have shown that PSTVd employs different structure and sequence elements to move between diverse cell types in host plants, and mutants defective for transport between specific cell types have been identified. Therefore, PSTVd may serve as a tool to analyze the functions of MPs of viral and cellular origin. To probe the RNA transport activity of TMV MP, transgenic plants expressing the protein were inoculated with PSTVd mutants. Remarkably, TMV MP complemented a PSTVd mutant defective for mesophyll entry but could not support two mutants impaired for phloem entry, suggesting it fails to productively interface with plasmodesmata at the phloem boundary and that additional viral and host factors may be required. Consistent with this idea, TMV co-infection, but not the combination of MP and coat protein (CP) expression, was able to complement one of the phloem entry mutants. These observations suggest that phloem loading is a critical impediment to establishing systemic infection that could involve the entire ensemble of TMV proteins. They also demonstrate a novel strategy for analysis of MPs.
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spelling doaj.art-79623b0a4be24b94a7b2f9e588d559c92023-02-11T05:30:42ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Pathogens1553-73661553-73742022-12-011812e101106210.1371/journal.ppat.1011062Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.Jian WuDavid M BisaroTobacco mosaic virus movement protein (TMV MP) is essential for virus spread between cells. To accomplish its task, TMV MP binds viral RNA, interacts with components of the cytoskeleton, and increases the size exclusion limit (SEL) of plasmodesmata. Plasmodesmata are gated intercellular channels that allow passage of small molecules and macromolecules, including RNA and protein, between plant cells. Moreover, plasmodesmata are diverse and those connecting different cell types appear to have unique mechanisms to regulate macromolecular trafficking, which likely contributes to the establishment of distinct cell boundaries. Consequently, TMV MP might be competent to mediate RNA transport through some but not all plasmodesmal gates. Due to a lack of viral mutants defective for movement between specific cell types, the ability of TMV MP in this regard is incompletely understood. In contrast, a number of trafficking impaired Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) mutants have been identified. PSTVd is a systemically infectious non-coding RNA that nevertheless can perform all functions required for replication as well as cell-to-cell and systemic spread. Previous studies have shown that PSTVd employs different structure and sequence elements to move between diverse cell types in host plants, and mutants defective for transport between specific cell types have been identified. Therefore, PSTVd may serve as a tool to analyze the functions of MPs of viral and cellular origin. To probe the RNA transport activity of TMV MP, transgenic plants expressing the protein were inoculated with PSTVd mutants. Remarkably, TMV MP complemented a PSTVd mutant defective for mesophyll entry but could not support two mutants impaired for phloem entry, suggesting it fails to productively interface with plasmodesmata at the phloem boundary and that additional viral and host factors may be required. Consistent with this idea, TMV co-infection, but not the combination of MP and coat protein (CP) expression, was able to complement one of the phloem entry mutants. These observations suggest that phloem loading is a critical impediment to establishing systemic infection that could involve the entire ensemble of TMV proteins. They also demonstrate a novel strategy for analysis of MPs.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1011062
spellingShingle Jian Wu
David M Bisaro
Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.
PLoS Pathogens
title Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.
title_full Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.
title_fullStr Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.
title_full_unstemmed Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.
title_short Tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a Potato spindle tuber viroid RNA mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem.
title_sort tobacco mosaic virus movement protein complements a potato spindle tuber viroid rna mutant impaired for mesophyll entry but not mutants unable to enter the phloem
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1011062
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