title: From hypo- to hypersuppression: effect of amino acid substitutions on the RNA-silencing suppressor activity of the Tobacco etch potyvirus HC-Pro.
abstract: RNA silencing participates in several important functions: from the regulation of cell metabolism and organism development to sequence-specific antiviral defense. Most plant viruses have evolved proteins that suppress RNA silencing and that in many cases are multifunctional. Tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) HC-Pro protein suppresses RNA silencing and participates in aphid-mediated transmission, polyprotein processing, and genome amplification. In this study, we have generated 28 HC-Pro amino acid substitution mutants and quantified their capacity as suppressors of RNA silencing in a transient expression assay. Most mutations either had no quantitative effect or completely abolished silencing suppression (10 in each class), 3 caused a significant decrease in the activity, and 5 significantly increased it, revealing an unexpected high frequency of mutations conferring hypersuppressor activity. A representative set of the mutant alleles, containing both hypo- and hypersuppressors, was further analyzed for their effect on TEV accumulation and the strength of induced symptoms. Whereas TEV variants with hyposuppressor mutants were far less virulent than wild-type TEV, those with hypersuppressor alleles induced symptoms that were not more severe than those characteristic of the wild-type virus, suggesting that there is not a perfect match between suppression and virulence.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-UPV, 46022 València, Spain.
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Torres-Barceló
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: José-Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Daròs
authors.forename: Santiago F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Elena
mesh_terms: D019943:Amino Acid Substitution / Q000235:genetics*; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000235:genetics*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D009154:Mutation; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000235:genetics; D017800:Potyvirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology; D034622:RNA Interference; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; C072775:HC-Pro protein, potyvirus
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