Aphid transmission of cauliflower mosaic virus requires the viral PIII protein.
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The open reading frame (ORF) III product (PIII) of cauliflower mosaic virus is necessary for the infection cycle but its role is poorly understood. We have used in vitro protein binding ('far Western') assays to demonstrate that PIII interacts with the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) ORF II product (PII), a known aphid transmission factor. Aphid transmission of purified virions of the PII-defective strain CM4-184 was dependent upon added PII, but complementation was efficient only in the presence of PIII, demonstrating the requirement of PIII for transmission. Deletion mutagenesis mapped the interaction domains of PIII and PII to the 30 N-terminal and 61 C-terminal residues of PIII and PII, respectively. A model for interaction between PIII and PII is proposed on the basis of secondary structure predictions. Finally, a direct correlation between the ability of PIII and PII to interact and aphid transmissibility of the virus was demonstrated by using mutagenized PIII proteins. Taken together, these data argue strongly that PIII is a second 'helper' factor required for CaMV transmission by aphids. (+info)
The cauliflower mosaic virus translational transactivator interacts with the 60S ribosomal subunit protein L18 of Arabidopsis thaliana.
(10/230)
The cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) open reading frame VI product (P6) is involved in several aspects of the infectious cycle. P6 specifically controls the synthesis of other CaMV proteins by transactivating their expression from the polycistronic 35S RNA. By far-Western assays, we have demonstrated that P6 interacts with proteins from both healthy and CaMV-infected leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana. These proteins are found in ribosome-enriched extracts, suggesting that they participate in the translation process. One of these proteins, identified by microsequencing, corresponds to the 60S ribosomal subunit protein L18 (RPL18). Its cDNA was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the resulting RPL18 protein was shown to interact with the minimal region required for translational transactivation, designated the miniTAV domain of P6. (+info)
The late developmental pattern of Mu transposon excision is conferred by a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S -driven MURA cDNA in transgenic maize.
(11/230)
The MuDR element responsible for Mutator activities in maize encodes two genes, mudrA and mudrB. Each encodes multiple transcripts hypothesized to regulate, directly or indirectly, the unique late timing and switch in transposition mechanism during maize development. mudrA, which encodes the MURA transposase, is unstable in bacterial plasmids, a technical problem solved by using phage M13 as a vector to prepare DNA for biolistic transformation. In transgenic maize, a single 2.7-kb mudrA cDNA predicted to encode an 823-amino acid protein is sufficient to catalyze late somatic excisions, despite removal of the native promoter, alternative transcription start sites, known introns, polymorphic 5' and 3' untranslated sequences, and the mudrB gene. These results suggest that post-translational regulation confers Mu excision timing. The transgene is active in lines containing silencing MuDR elements. This suggests that endogenous MuDR transposons do not measurably immunize the host against expression of a homologous transgene. (+info)
Interaction of the cauliflower mosaic virus coat protein with the pregenomic RNA leader.
(12/230)
Using the yeast three-hybrid system, the interaction of the Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) pregenomic 35S RNA (pgRNA) leader with the viral coat protein, its precursor, and a series of derivatives was studied. The purine-rich domain in the center of the pgRNA leader was found to specifically interact with the coat protein. The zinc finger motif of the coat protein and the preceding basic domain were essential for this interaction. Removal of the N-terminal portion of the basic domain led to loss of specificity but did not affect the strength of the interaction. Mutations of the zinc finger motif abolished not only the interaction with the RNA but also viral infectivity. In the presence of the very acidic C-terminal domain, which is part of the preprotein but is not present in the mature CP, the interaction with the RNA was undetectable. (+info)
Role of a short open reading frame in ribosome shunt on the cauliflower mosaic virus RNA leader.
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The pregenomic 35 S RNA of cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) belongs to the growing number of mRNAs known to have a complex leader sequence. The 612-nucleotide leader contains several short open reading frames (sORFs) and forms an extended hairpin structure. Downstream translation of 35 S RNA is nevertheless possible due to the ribosome shunt mechanism, by which ribosomes are directly transferred from a take-off site near the capped 5' end of the leader to a landing site near its 3' end. There they resume scanning and reach the first long open reading frame. We investigated in detail how the multiple sORFs influence ribosome migration either via shunting or linear scanning along the CaMV leader. The sORFs together constituted a major barrier for the linear ribosome migration, whereas the most 5'-proximal sORF, sORF A, in combination with sORFs B and C, played a positive role in translation downstream of the leader by diverting scanning ribosomes to the shunt route. A simplified, shunt-competent leader was constructed with the most part of the hairpin including all the sORFs except sORF A replaced by a scanning-inhibiting structure. In this leader as well as in the wild type leader, proper translation and termination of sORF A was required for efficient shunt and also for the level of shunt enhancement by a CaMV-encoded translation transactivator. sORF A could be replaced by heterologous sORFs, but a one-codon (start/stop) sORF was not functional. The results implicate that in CaMV, shunt-mediated translation requires reinitiation. The efficiency of the shunt process is influenced by translational properties of the sORF. (+info)
Activation tagging in Arabidopsis.
(14/230)
Activation tagging using T-DNA vectors that contain multimerized transcriptional enhancers from the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S gene has been applied to Arabidopsis plants. New activation-tagging vectors that confer resistance to the antibiotic kanamycin or the herbicide glufosinate have been used to generate several tens of thousands of transformed plants. From these, over 30 dominant mutants with various phenotypes have been isolated. Analysis of a subset of mutants has shown that overexpressed genes are almost always found immediately adjacent to the inserted CaMV 35S enhancers, at distances ranging from 380 bp to 3.6 kb. In at least one case, the CaMV 35S enhancers led primarily to an enhancement of the endogenous expression pattern rather than to constitutive ectopic expression, suggesting that the CaMV 35S enhancers used here act differently than the complete CaMV 35S promoter. This has important implications for the spectrum of genes that will be discovered by this method. (+info)
Ribosome shunting in the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S RNA leader is a special case of reinitiation of translation functioning in plant and animal systems.
(15/230)
The shunt model predicts that small ORFs (sORFs) within the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S RNA leader and downstream ORF VII are translated by different mechanisms, that is, scanning-reinitiation and shunting, respectively. Wheat germ extract (WGE) and rabbit reticulocyte lysate (RRL) in vitro translation systems were used to discriminate between these two processes and to study the mechanism of ribosomal shunt. In both systems, expression downstream of the leader occurred via ribosomal shunt under the control of a stable stem and a small ORF preceding it. Shunting ribosomes were also able to initiate quite efficiently at non-AUG start codons just downstream of the shunt landing site in WGE but not in RRL. The short sORF MAGDIS from the mammalian AdoMetDC RNA, which conditionally suppresses reinitiation at a downstream ORF, prevented shunting if placed at the position of sORF A, the 5'-proximal ORF of the CaMV leader. We have demonstrated directly that sORF A is translated and that proper termination of translation at the 5'-proximal ORF is absolutely required for both shunting and linear ribosome migration. These findings strongly indicate that shunting is a special case of reinitiation. (+info)
Host suppressors in Arabidopsis thaliana of mutations in the movement protein gene of Cauliflower mosaic virus.
(16/230)
A novel genetic screen was used to identify host factors in Arabidopsis thaliana that suppress mutations in the Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) movement protein gene (gene I). A series of small mutations was made in gene I and the mutations were tested for their suitability in a suppressor screen. The first round of screening yielded only revertants or second-site mutations in gene I. A derivative of one of the second-site mutant viruses (N7) that was delayed in symptom production was used in a second round of screening for suppressor plants that accelerated symptom production. Two candidate suppressor plants were found that accelerated by 1 to 4 days the first appearance of symptoms caused by the mutant viruses. One of the suppressors (5-2), called asc1 (acceleration of symptoms by CaMV N7), was mapped to chromosome 1. Two additional loci that differentially affect N7 virus susceptibility in the parental Columbia and Ler ecotypes were mapped to chromosomes 3 and 4 by quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. (+info)