title: Small cysteine-rich proteins of different groups of plant RNA viruses are related to different families of nucleic acid-binding proteins.
abstract: The 3'-terminal genes in genomic RNAs of four groups of plant positive strand RNA viruses (hordei-, furo-, tobra-, and carlaviruses) encode small proteins enriched in Cys residues. The arrangement of Cys and in some cases also His residues in these proteins is compatible with finger formation. A computer-assisted sequence comparison of viral Cys-rich proteins reveals no significant similarity between them. It is shown that the hordeivirus Cys-rich protein (17K) is related to a group of chloroplast tRNA intron-encoded proteins, whereas the respective furovirus protein (14K) is similar to E6 proteins of papillomaviruses. Somewhat less significant similarity, marked, however, by conservation of a number of positively charged residues, was observed between the sequences of tobravirus Cys-rich proteins and the basic domains of high mobility group chromatin proteins. It can be speculated that plant RNA virus Cys-rich proteins bind RNA and/or DNA and might be involved in regulation of virus and/or host genome expression. In the course of evolution these virus proteins may have originated from different nucleic acid-binding proteins.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Koonin
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Boyko
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Dolja
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D003545:Cysteine; D016208:Databases, Factual; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; D012343:RNA, Transfer; D003545:Cysteine