title: The Tombusvirus-encoded P19: from irrelevance to elegance.
abstract: Since its discovery in the late 1980s, the status of the Tombusvirus-encoded p19 protein (P19) changed from being thought obsolete to its identification a decade later as an important viral pathogenicity factor. The recent finding that P19 suppresses RNA interference (RNAi) by appropriating short interfering RNAs led to its widespread use as an RNAi-probing tool in various plant and animal models. Here, I discuss how our knowledge of p19 has developed over the years, with emphasis on the relevance of understanding its biological roles during Tombusvirus infection of plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology and Intercollegiate Faculty of Virology, Texas A&M University, 2132 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77843, USA. herscho@tamu.edu
authors.forename: Herman B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Scholthof
mesh_terms: D034622:RNA Interference; D017864:Tombusvirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors