Research
Soilborne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV) 19K protein belongs to a class of cysteine rich proteins that suppress RNA silencing
1 Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
2 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Virology Journal 2005, 2:18 doi:10.1186/1743-422X-2-18
Published: 1 March 2005Abstract
Amino acid sequence analyses indicate that the Soilborne wheat mosaic virus (SBWMV) 19K protein is a cysteine-rich protein (CRP) and shares sequence homology with CRPs derived from furo-, hordei-, peclu- and tobraviruses. Since the hordei- and pecluvirus CRPs were shown to be pathogenesis factors and/or suppressors of RNA silencing, experiments were conducted to determine if the SBWMV 19K CRP has similar activities. The SBWMV 19K CRP was introduced into the Potato virus X (PVX) viral vector and inoculated to tobacco plants. The SBWMV 19K CRP aggravated PVX-induced symptoms and restored green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression to GFP silenced tissues. These observations indicate that the SBWMV 19K CRP is a pathogenicity determinant and a suppressor of RNA silencing.
