title: The N-terminal 12 amino acids of tomato aspermy virus 2b protein function in infection and recombination.
abstract: The roles for various regions of the 2b protein in infection, hypervirulence and recombination were examined by introducing stop codons in a chimeric virus containing RNA 1 from the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV strain Q), RNA 3 from the tomato aspermy virus (TAV) and RNA 2 of CMV with a 2b gene from TAV. Chimeric virus expressing the intact 2b protein induced severe symptoms in inoculated Nicotiana clevelandii and Nicotiana glutinosa and facilitated CMV-TAV recombination, while chimeric viruses not expressing 2b protein did not infect plants systemically. Chimeric viruses expressing either the N-terminal 43 or 12 aa of the 2b protein infected both plant species systemically and facilitated CMV-TAV recombination, but induced mild symptoms and no symptoms in the infected plants, respectively. These data suggest that oligopeptides can have important functions in the biology of viruses and prompt a re-examination of existing small ORFs in sequenced virus genomes.
authors: Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia.
authors: Bu-Jun
authors: BJ
authors: Shi
authors: Seoul Women's University, Seoul 139-774, Republic of Korea.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Palukaitis
mesh_terms: D017799:Cucumovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000821:virology; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D010942:Plant Viruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins