Characterization of the recombinant forms arising from a Potato virus X chimeric virus infection under RNA silencing pressure

Recombination is a frequent phenomenon in RNA viruses whose net result is largely influenced by selective pressures. RNA silencing in plants acts as a defense mechanism against viruses and can be used to engineer virus resistance. Here, we have investigated the influence of RNA silencing as a selective pressure to favor recombinants of PVX-HCT, a chimeric Potato virus X (PVX) vector carrying the helper-component proteinase (HC-Pro) gene from Plum pox virus (PPV). All the plants from two lines expressing a silenced HC-Pro transgene were completely resistant to PPV. However a significant proportion became infected with PVX-HCT. Analysis of viral RNAs accumulating in silenced plants revealed that PVX-HCT escaped silencing-based resistance by removal of the HC-Pro sequences that represented preferential targets for transgene-promoted silencing. The virus vector also tended to lose the HC-Pro insert when infecting transgenic plants containing a nonsilenced HC-Pro transgene or wild-type (wt) Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Nevertheless, loss of HC-Pro sequences was faster in nonsilenced transgenic plants than in wt plants, suggesting the transgene plays a role in promoting a higher selective pressure in favor of recombinant virus versions. These results indicate that the outcome of recombination processes depends on the strength of selection pressures applied to the virus.     

The capacity of transgenic tobacco to send a systemic RNA silencing signal depends on the nature of the inducing transgene locus

RNA silencing is a conserved eukaryotic pathway in which double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) triggers destruction of homologous target RNA via production of short-interfering RNA (siRNA). In plants, at least some cases of RNA silencing can spread systemically. The signal responsible for systemic spread is expected to include an RNA component to account for the sequence specificity of the process, and transient silencing assays have shown that the capacity for systemic silencing correlates with the accumulation of a particular class of small RNA. Here, we report the results of grafting experiments to study transmission of silencing from stably transformed tobacco lines in the presence or absence of helper component-proteinase (HC-Pro), a viral suppressor of silencing. The studied lines carry either a tail-to-tail inverted repeat, the T4-IR transgene locus, or one of two different amplicon transgene loci encoding replication-competent viral RNA. We find that the T4-IR locus, like many sense-transgene-silenced loci, can send a systemic silencing signal, and this ability is not detectably altered by HC-Pro. Paradoxically, neither amplicon locus effectively triggers systemic silencing except when suppressed for silencing by HC-Pro. In contrast to results from transient assays, these grafting experiments reveal no consistent correlation between capacity for systemic silencing and accumulation of any particular class of small RNA. In addition, although all transgenic lines used to transmit systemic silencing signals were methylated at specific sites within the transgene locus, silencing in grafted scions occurred without detectable methylation at those sites in the target locus of the scion.     

Plant viral synergism: the potyviral genome encodes a broad-range pathogenicity enhancer that transactivates replication of heterologous viruses.

Synergistic viral diseases of higher plants are caused by the interaction of two independent viruses in the same host and are characterized by dramatic increases in symptoms and in accumulation of one of the coinfecting viruses. In potato virus X (PVX)/potyviral synergism, increased pathogenicity and accumulation of PVX are mediated by the expression of potyviral 5' proximal sequences encoding P1, the helper component proteinase (HC-Pro), and a fraction of P3. Here, we report that the same potyviral sequence (termed P1/HC-Pro) enhances the pathogenicity and accumulation of two other heterologous viruses: cucumber mosaic virus and tobacco mosaic virus. In the case of PVX-potyviral synergism, we show that the expression of the HC-Pro gene product, but not the RNA sequence itself, is sufficient to induce the increase in PVX pathogenicity and that both P1 and P3 coding sequences are dispensable for this aspect of the synergistic interaction. In protoplasts, expression of the potyviral P1/HC-Pro region prolongs the accumulation of PVX (-) strand RNA and transactivates expression of a reporter gene from a PVX subgenomic promoter. Unlike the synergistic enhancement of PVX pathogenicity, which requires only expression of HC-Pro, the enhancement of PVX (-) strand RNA accumulation in protoplasts is significantly greater when the entire P1/HC-Pro sequence is expressed. These results indicate that the potyviral P1/HC-Pro region affects a step in disease development that is common to a broad range of virus infections and suggest a mechanism involving transactivation of viral replication.     

马铃薯Y病毒蚜传辅助因子促进马铃薯X病毒长距离运输

采用PCR和定点突变法,对马铃薯Y病毒中国株系（Chyinese strain of potato Ypotyvirus,PVY-C)蚜传辅助成分（helper component proteinase,HC-Pro)基因中心区域的CCCT基序和PTK基序进行定点改造,获得了4种突变体。然后将突变体砍降到植物表达载体pBin438中,所得到的重组体通过根癌土壤杆菌（Agrobacterium tumefaciens(Smith et Townsend)Conn）介导法转了烟草（Nicotiana tabacum L.cv.K326).Southern blotting和Western blotting分析表明4种突变体已经成功整合到烟草的基因组中,并在蛋白水平上得到了表达。马铃薯X病毒（potato X potexvirus,PVX)对转基因烟草的攻毒实验表明,4种突变体均使PVY－C HYC－Prog严重丧失了促进PVX病毒粒子在寄主体内积累和提高PVX致病性的功能,说明CCCT、PTK基序为PVY－C HYC－Pro介导PVX／PVY协生作用所必需。同时证明了HC-Pro具有增强PVX在寄主体内长距离运输的功能。     

Potato Y Potyvirus Helper Component Proteinase Enhances Long-distance Movement of Potato X Potexvirus

To mutagenize two conserved CCCT and PTK motifs in the central domain of Chinese strain of potato Y potyvirus (PVY-C) helper component proteinase (HC-Pro), four mutants of HC-Pro gene were obtained by PCR and site-directed mutagenesis, and then were inserted into the constitutive expression vector pBin438. Leaves from tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. K326) were transformed with these four plant expression plasmids by Agrobacterium -mediated transformation, respectively. Southern and Western blotting analyses showed that these four mutants were integrated into tobacco genomic DNA and could express the corresponding proteins in most of the transgenic plants. The challenge of transgenic plants with potato X potexvirus (PVX) revealed that the expression products of PVY-C HC-Pro mutants in transgenic plants greatly abolished functions of HC-Pro in enhancing the accumulation and pathogenicity of PVX, indicating that CCCT and PTK motifs of HC-Pro were required for PVX/PVY synergism. Meanwhile, the results demonstrated that PVY-C HC-Pro had a function in accelerating the long-distance movement of PVX in these transgenic plants for the first time.     

CMV抑制PVYN CP基因沉默及其介导的抗病性

以前曾报道用RNA介导的抗病毒策略,获得了高度抗病的表达马铃薯Y病毒坏死株系外壳蛋白基因(PVY^N CP)的转基因烟草,并对T1、T2代转基因植株进行了遗传和抗病性分析。此次以T,代转基因植株为试验材料,在筛选高度抗病植株并证明其抗病性是基于转基因沉默的基础上,采用Northern杂交的方法,证明CMV侵染抑制了转基因植株中PVY^N CP基因的沉默,而且CMV对PVY^N CP基因沉默的抑制部位是发生在接种后的新生叶上,接种叶及其下部叶片中PVY^N CP基因沉默则未受到影响。采用ELISA方法对CMV PVY^N复合接种的转基因植株进行PVY^N检测,结果表明,接种叶及下部叶没有检测到PVY^N,植株叶片对PVY^N表现为抗病。而在CMV接种后植株新生叶中则检测出了高滴度的PVY^N,植株叶片对PVY^N表现为感病。该文报道了在表达PVY^N CP基因的RNA介导抗性转基因植株中,异源病毒侵染抑制了转基因的沉默,并导致转基因植株的抗病性丧失。