The movement protein of cowpea mosaic virus binds GTP and single-stranded nucleic acid in vitro.
The movement protein (MP) of Cowpea mosaic virus forms tubules in plasmodesmata to enable the transport of mature virions. Here it is shown that the MP is capable of specifically binding riboguanosine triphosphate and that mutational analysis suggests that GTP binding plays a role in the targeted transport of the MP. Furthermore, the MP is capable of binding both single-stranded RNA and single-stranded DNA in a non-sequence-specific manner, and the GTP- and RNA-binding sites do not overlap.
Carvalho
C M
CM
Laboratory of Virology, Department of Plant Sciences, Wageningen University, 6709 PD Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Pouwels
J
J
van Lent
J W M
JW
Bisseling
T
T
Goldbach
R W
RW
Wellink
J
J
D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017798:Comovirus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded / Q000378:metabolism*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism*; D053830:Plant Viral Movement Proteins; D011523:Protoplasts / Q000821:virology; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D018411:Spodoptera / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D004279:DNA, Viral; D053830:Plant Viral Movement Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate