Potato virus Y (PVY) is an important plant virus and causes great losses every year. Viral infection often leads to abnormal chloroplasts. The first step of chloroplast division is the formation of FtsZ ring (Z-ring), and the placement of Z-ring is coordinated by the Min system in both bacteria and plants. In our lab, the helper-component proteinase (HC-Pro) of PVY was previously found to inter...

The photosynthetic rate of virus-infected plants is always reduced. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains unclear. The helper component-proteinase (HC-Pro) of Potato virus Y (PVY) was found in the chloroplasts of PVY-infected tobacco, indicating some new function of HC-Pro in the chloroplasts. We generated HC-Pro transgenic plants with a transit peptide to target t...

A series of in-frame and nested deletion mutations which progressively removed 5'-proximal sequences of the Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) HC-Pro coding region (1152 nucleotides) was constructed and evaluated for pathogenicity to wheat. WSMV HC-Pro mutants with 5'-proximal deletions of 12 to 720 nucleotides systemically infected wheat. Boundary sequences flanking the deletions were stable and...

Transient expression of proteins in plants has become a choice to facilitate recombinant protein production with its fast and easy application. On the other hand, host defensive mechanisms have been reported to reduce the efficiency of transient expression in plants. Hence, this study was designed to evaluate the effect of cap analog and Potato virus A helper component proteinase (PVA HC-Pro) o...

A Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) genome lacking HC-Pro was constructed and confirmed by reverse transcription-PCR to systemically infect wheat, oat, and corn. Coupled in vitro transcription/translation reactions indicated that WSMV P1 proteinase cleaved the polyprotein at the P1/P3 junction of the HC-Pro null mutant. The WSMV HC-Pro null mutant was competent for virion formation, but the viru...

ABSTRACT Transgenic soybean (Glycine max) plants expressing Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) helper component-protease (HC-Pro) showed altered vegetative and reproductive phenotypes and responses to SMV infection. When inoculated with SMV, transgenic plants expressing the lowest level of HC-Pro mRNA and those transformed with the vector alone initially showed mild SMV symptoms. Plants that accumulate...

The virus-encoded proteins of tobacco etch virus (TEV), a plant potyvirus, arise by proteolytic processing of a large polyprotein precursor. The TEV genome codes for two proteinases, a 49-kilodalton proteinase and helper component proteinase (HC-Pro), which cleave the polyprotein at specific sites. The only known cleavage event catalyzed by HC-Pro occurs at the HC-Pro carboxyl terminus. The pro...

Gene silencing is an important but little understood regulatory mechanism in plants. Here we report that a viral sequence, initially identified as a mediator of synergistic viral disease, acts to suppress the establishment of both transgene-induced and virus-induced posttranscriptional gene silencing. The viral suppressor of silencing comprises the 5'-proximal region of the tobacco etch potyvir...