title: V2 of tomato yellow leaf curl virus can suppress methylation-mediated transcriptional gene silencing in plants.
abstract: Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is a DNA virus belonging to the genus Begomovirus. TYLCV replicates using double-stranded DNA intermediates that can become the target of plant transcriptional gene silencing (TGS). Here, we show that the V2 protein of TYLCV can suppress TGS of a transcriptionally silenced green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene in Nicotiana benthamiana line 16-TGS. Through bisulfite sequencing and chop-PCR, we demonstrated that the TYLCV V2 can reverse GFP transgene silencing by reducing the methylation levels in the 35S promoter sequence. Both AtSN1 and MEA-ISR loci in Arabidopsis thaliana were previously reported to be strongly methylated, and we show that the methylation status of both loci was significantly reduced in TYLCV V2 transgenic Arabidopsis plants. We conclude that TYLCV can efficiently suppress TGS when it infects plants, and its V2 protein is responsible for the TGS suppression activity.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Bi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Fangfang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Changjun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiuling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Yajuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China.
authors.forename: Xueping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D053839:Begomovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D015536:Down-Regulation; D020868:Gene Silencing; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins