title: Presence of poly(A) and poly(A)-rich tails in a positive-strand RNA virus known to lack 3׳ poly(A) tails.
abstract: Here we show that Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), a positive-strand RNA virus known to end with 3׳ tRNA-like structures, does possess a small fraction of gRNA bearing polyadenylate tails. Particularly, many tails are at sites corresponding to the 3׳ end of near full length gRNA, and are composed of poly(A)-rich sequences containing the other nucleotides in addition to adenosine, resembling the degradation-stimulating poly(A) tails observed in all biological kingdoms. Further investigations demonstrate that these polyadenylated RNA species are not enriched in chloroplasts. Silencing of cpPNPase, a chloroplast-localized polynucleotide polymerase known to not only polymerize the poly(A)-rich tails but act as a 3׳ to 5׳ exoribonuclease, does not change the profile of polyadenylate tails associated with TMV RNA. Nevertheless, because similar tails were also detected in other phylogenetically distinct positive-strand RNA viruses lacking poly(A) tails, such kind of polyadenylation may reflect a common but as-yet-unknown interface between hosts and viruses.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: liweimin01@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yongqiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xinwu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhixing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shirong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jia
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000821:virology; D027462:Chenopodium / Q000821:virology; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000821:virology; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000821:virology; D017898:Tobamovirus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Poly(A) tails; RNA polyadenylation; Tobacco mosaic virus