Vascular movement of plant viruses.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A L Haenni.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The 206-kDa protein of turnip yellow mosaic virus belongs to an expanding group of proteins containing a domain which includes the consensus nucleotide binding site GxxxxGKS/T. A portion of this protein (amino acids [aa] 916 to 1259) was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by affinity chromatography to near homogeneity. In the absence of any other viral factors, it exhibited ATPase and GTPase activities in vitro. A mutant protein with a single amino acid substitution in the consensus nucleotide binding site (Lys-982 to Ser) exhibited only low levels of both activities, implying that Lys-982 is important for nucleoside triphosphatase activity. The protein also possessed nonspecific RNA binding capacity. Deletion mutants revealed that an N-terminal domain (aa 916 to 1061) and a C-terminal domain (aa 1182 to 1259) participate in RNA binding. The results presented here provide the first experimental evidence that turnip yellow mosaic virus encodes nucleoside triphosphatase and RNA binding activities.
Sequence comparisons predicted a potential papain-like proteinase domain in the N-terminal cleavage product (NRP) of the large nonstructural replicase polyprotein (RP) of turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV). Replacement of the predicted catalytic amino acids, Cys-783 by Ser, or of His-869 by Glu, abolished cleavage of the 206K RP into a approximately 150 K NRP and a approximately 78 K C-terminal product in reticulocyte lysates, while other substitutions exerted no apparent influence on proteolysis. The proteinase-deficient mutant RPs could not be cleaved in trans by as much as an eight-fold molar excess of wild-type proteinase. Deletion experiments have excluded the possible influence on autoproteolysis of amino acid sequences 1-708 and 982-1204 flanking the proteinase domain. Thus, the proteinase of TYMV with a papain-like dyad of essential amino acids has been mapped just upstream from the putative NTPase domain. Statistically significant sequence similarities with the TYMV proteinase were found for the similarly located domains of the replicase polyproteins of carlaviruses, capilloviruses, apple stem pitting virus and apple chlorotic leaf spot virus as well as for those of other tymoviruses and for the domain located downstream from the putative NTPase domain of the large polyprotein of beet necrotic yellow vein furovirus. All these domains are not significantly similar to other known proteinases, although they conserve papain-like Cys- and His-containing motifs. Thus these domains constitute a compact group of related enzymes, the tymo-like proteinases, within the proposed papain-like proteinase supergroup. The resulting alignment of 10 tymo-like proteinase sequences has revealed a third highly conserved residue--Gly (Gly821 in TYMV RP) followed by a hydrophobic residue. We speculate that all the tymo-like proteinase domains of the viral replicative proteins may share common biochemical and biological features.
The large non-structural polyprotein (206 kDa) of turnip yellow mosaic tymovirus (TYMV) undergoes auto-cleavage, producing N- and C-terminal proteins. Here we show that the viral proteinase responsible for this event is active when produced in Escherichia coli, as monitored in Western blots by examining the generation of the C-terminal cleavage product after induction by IPTG. The outer boundaries and critical amino acids of the proteinase domain were characterized by deletion analysis and site-directed mutagenesis. A miniproteinase of 273 residues resulting from combined N- and C-terminal deletions still performed efficient cleavage. Sequence analysis of the bacterially-purified C-terminal cleavage product indicated that cleavage occurs between Ala1259 and Thr1260 of the non-structural protein.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Subgenomic RNAs of both polarities corresponding to rice hoja blanca virus (RHBV) ambisense RNA4 were detected in RHBV-infected rice tissues. Total RNA extracted from RHBV-infected and noninfected rice tissues and RNA4 purified from RHBV ribonucleoprotein particles were used as templates for primer extension studies. The RNAs extracted from RHBV-infected tissues contain a population of RNA molecules with 10 to 17 nonviral nucleotides at their 5' end. The RNA-cDNA hybrids resulting from primer extension of such RNA molecules were specifically immunoselected with anti-cap antibodies, indicating that the subgenomic RNAs are capped and probably serve as mRNAs and that the additional nucleotides at their 5' end possibly derive from host mRNAs via a cap-snatching mechanism.
The termination of protein synthesis in ribosomes is governed by termination (stop) codons in messenger RNAs and by polypeptide chain release factors (RFs). Although the primary structure of prokaryotic RFs and yeast mitochrondrial RF is established, that of the only known eukaryotic RF (eRF) remains obscure. Here we report the assignment of a family of tightly related proteins (designated eRF1) from lower and higher eukaryotes which are structurally and functionally similar to rabbit eRF. Two of these proteins, one from human and the other from Xenopus laevis, have been expressed in yeast and Escherichia coli, respectively, purified and shown to be active in the in vitro RF assay. The other protein of this family, sup45 (sup1) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is involved in omnipotent suppression during translation. The amino-acid sequence of the eRF1 family is highly conserved. We conclude that the eRF1 proteins are directly implicated in the termination of translation in eukaryotes.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
1. Plant viruses can only enter their host through a wounded plant cell. Once in the cytoplasm, the virion must be disassembled, and for certain viruses with a "+" RNA genome, cotranslational disassembly of virus particles has been described. 2. Subsequent to viral protein synthesis which requires the host translational machinery, the "+" RNA genome is replicated in the cytoplasm. Viral genome amplification requires at least one viral-coded non-structural protein in conjunction with one or more host factors. 3. Early events in virus infection can be studied in systems that hinder these events. This is the case of natural hosts that are resistant to viruses: mutant viruses which overcome such resistance have been described. It is also the case of genetically engineered plants that are protected from virus infection. Both types of systems should help in determining the mode of interaction involved, and possibly also the host factor(s) involved in the various steps of virus infection.
In order to evaluate new possibilities for protecting plants against virus infection by interference with viral replication, two chimeric genes were constructed in which the (+) strand 3'-terminal 100 nucleotides (nt) of the noncoding region of the turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) genome were placed downstream from the sense or antisense cat coding region. The two chimeric genes were then introduced into the genome of rapeseed (Brassica napus) using an Agrobacterium rhizogenes vector system. Plants expressing high levels of either chimeric gene showed partial protection against infection by TYMV RNA or virions. One interesting feature of the protection is that a proportion of the inoculated transgenic plants does not become infected. Protection was overcome when the inoculum concentration was increased. RNA complementary to the initial transcript was detected after infection.
We have previously shown that the Dictyostelium discoideum ribosomal protein L19 specifically binds Ca2+/calmodulin [Sonneman et al. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 23091-23096]. To investigate the role of calmodulin in the regulation of protein synthesis, we have now established an in vitro protein synthesizing system from Dictyostelium cells which can elongate polypeptide chains with high efficiency. Various calmodulin antagonists affected translation in this system. The inhibitory effects of the antagonists could be partially reversed by addition of calmodulin. A monoclonal antibody against D. discoideum calmodulin also specifically inhibited protein synthesis. Similar effects of calmodulin antagonists were found in a standard wheat germ in vitro translation system.
The putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of potato leafroll luteovirus (PLRV) is expressed by -1 ribosomal frameshifting in the region where the open reading frames (ORF) of proteins 2a and 2b overlap. The signal responsible for efficient frameshift is composed of the slippery site UUUAAAU followed by a sequence that has the potential to adopt two alternative folding patterns, either a structure involving a pseudoknot, or a simple stem-loop structure. To investigate the structure requirements for efficient frameshifting, mutants in the stem-loop or in the potential pseudoknot regions of a Polish isolate of PLRV (PLRV-P) have been analyzed. Mutations that are located in the second stem (S2) of the potential pseudoknot structure, but are located in unpaired regions of the alternative stem-loop structure, reduce frameshift efficiency. Deletion of the 3' end sequence of the alternative stem-loop structure does not reduce frameshift efficiency. Our results confirm that -1 frameshift in the overlap region depends on the slippery site and on the downstream positioned sequence, and propose that in PLRV-P a pseudoknot is required for efficient frameshifting. These results are in agreement with those recently published for the closely related beet western yellows luteovirus (BWYV).
Recently, cDNA clones encoding the bovine (b) [M. Garret, B. Pajot, V. Trézéguet, J. Labouesse, M. Merle, J.-C. Gandar, J.-P. Benedetto, M.-L. Sallafranque, J. Alterio, M. Gueguen, C. Sarger, B. Labouesse and J. Bonnet (1991) Biochemistry 30, 7809-7817] and human (h) [L. Yu. Frolova, M. A. Sudomoina, A. Yu. Grigorieva, O. L. Zinovieva and L. L. Kisselev (1991) Gene 109, 291-296] tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetases (TrpRS) were sequenced; the deduced amino acid sequences exhibit typical structural features of class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases [G. Eriani, M. Delarue, O. Poch, J. Gangloff and D. Moras (1990) Nature 237, 203-206] and limited, although significant, similarity with bacterial TrpRS. Independently, it was shown that a major protein whose synthesis is stimulated in human cell cultures by interferon gamma [J. Fleckner, H. H. Rasmussen and J. Justesen (1991) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 88, 11,520-11,524], and interferons gamma or alpha [B. Y. Rubins, S. L. Anderson, L. Xing, R. J. Powell and W. P. Tate (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 226, 24,245-24,248], exhibits TrpRS activity and an amino acid sequence identical to that of hTrpRS. The amino acid sequences of bTrpRS and hTrpRS are highly similar and are surprisingly very similar to the amino acid sequence deduced from a cloned and sequenced cDNA reported to encode rabbit (r) peptide-chain-release factor (RF) [C. C. Lee, W. J. Craigen, D. M. Muzny, E. Harlow and C. T. Caskey (1990) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 87, 3508-3512]. This close similarity between mammalian TrpRS and cloned RF is unexpected given the distinct functional properties of these proteins. Consequently, the question arises as to whether the mammalian TrpRS and RF activities reside on identical or very similar polypeptides. Alternatively, one may assume that the cloned rabbit cDNA encodes a protein other than rRF. Several properties (immunochemical, biochemical and physico-chemical) of mammalian TrpRS and RF have been compared. rTrpRS and rRF have distinct thermostability behaviours, and dissimilar chromatographic profiles on phosphocellulose. Both the anti-bTrpRS polyclonal antibodies and the monoclonal antibody Am2 strongly inhibit the bTrpRS and hTrpRS aminoacylation activities, but not the rRF activity. In addition, neither bTrpRS nor hTrpRS exhibit RF activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
A very high (approximately 90%) structural similarity exists between the bovine, human and murine tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetases (WRS), and quite unexpectedly the rabbit polypeptide chain release factor (eRF). This similarity may point to a very close resemblance or identity between these proteins involved in distinct steps of protein synthesis, or inadvertently to an incorrect assignment of the clone reported to encode eRF, since the structure of clones encoding WRS were confirmed by peptide sequencing. Using high resolution column chromatography and sucrose gradient centrifugation combined with assays for WRS and eRF activities, we show that functionally distinct WRS and eRF proteins can be completely separated from each other. Moreover, a putative anti-eRF monoclonal antibody appears incapable of immunoprecipitating the eRF activity or binding to protein(s) possessing eRF activity. This antibody binds to protein fractions which coincide in various separation procedures with rabbit WRS activity, and to pure bovine WRS. The protein expressed in Escherichia coli from the original cDNA clone initially reported to encode eRF, has WRS activity but not eRF activity. Resequencing of the fragment of the original rabbit cDNA demonstrates the presence of the previously overlooked HXGH motif typical of class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Consequently, mammalian WRS and eRF are different proteins, and the cDNA clone formerly assigned as encoding eRF encodes rabbit WRS.
Mammalian aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases are indispensible components of the cell's protein-synthesizing machinery. Surprisingly, recent experiments have demonstrated that synthesis of tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase (WRS) is markedly enhanced after incubation of human cells with interferons. Why is this housekeeping enzyme interferon-inducible? Several hypotheses have been suggested. One hypothesis, that premature termination of protein synthesis was involved, was boosted by the discovery that the deduced amino acid sequence of the mammalian peptide chain release factor (RF) closely resembled that of WRS. Further investigation, however, suggests that the DNA encoding RF was wrongly identified and in fact encodes a rabbit WRS subunit. Other hypotheses on the interferon-inducibility of WRS, including the possibility that the protein performs other, regulatory functions in addition to its core enzymic activity, remain to be explored.
The complete sequence of rice hoja blanca virus (RHBV) RNA4 has been determined, based on the sequence of the corresponding cDNA clones. RNA4 consists of 1991 nucleotides with two open reading frames (ORFs). One putative ORF is located in the 5'-proximal region of the viral RNA4; it encodes a protein of predicted M(r) 20076 which corresponds to the major non-structural protein that accumulates in RHBV-infected rice plants, and which bears limited sequence identity with the helper component of tobacco vein mottling potyvirus. The other ORF is located in the 5'-proximal region of the viral complementary RNA4 and encodes a protein of predicted M(r) 32,469. Between the two ORFs is an intergenic region of 524 nucleotides, part of which can theoretically adopt a stable stem-loop structure; the 5' and 3' ends can potentially base-pair over 16 nucleotides, producing a pan-handle configuration. These characteristics are in favour of an ambisense coding strategy for RHBV RNA4.
We describe here a convenient and efficient system for studying turnip yellow mosaic virus (TYMV) replication in leaf protoplasts. Inoculation of rapeseed (Brassica napus) or Chinese cabbage (B. sinensis) protoplasts was achieved via electroporation, and sensitive detection of viral RNA products was performed by Northern blot analyses using a non-radioactive digoxigenin-labelled cDNA probe. Virus replication was detected when 1.5 x 10(6) rapeseed protoplasts were inoculated with 20 ng of TYMV RNA. Electrotransfection of TYMV RNA was more efficient in rapeseed than in Chinese cabbage protoplasts, and gave somewhat higher signals than those of TYMV virions. TYMV RNA appeared to replicate equally well whether the protoplasts were incubated in the dark or under constant light.