Scientists catch a plant virus rewiring protein production mid-infection
Kanodia P, Lozier Z, Lastovka F, Walker D, Liu P
Plant Signaling
The clover and vetch patches you see in fields and roadsides are battling viruses like this one constantly, and understanding how plants defend themselves at this level could eventually help breeders build hardier crops and ornamentals.
Researchers infected Arabidopsis plants with a virus that attacks clover and used a technique called ribosome profiling to watch exactly which proteins the plant and virus were building, not just which genes were switched on. They found the plant ramps up immune defenses through translation (not just gene activation) early in infection, while the virus cleverly makes huge amounts of its coat protein and uses a sneaky ribosome 'slip' to produce different proteins from the same piece of RNA. It's the first time scientists have measured this kind of protein-production hijacking so precisely in any plant virus infection.
Key Findings
An immune-related protein (TRAF-like) was boosted at the translation level, not the gene-activation level, within 5 days of infection, showing hidden layers of plant defense
The virus uses programmed ribosomal frameshifting at 7.5-8.0% efficiency, the first direct measurement of this process in any infected plant virus
Viral coat protein is translated extremely efficiently while the virus's RNA copying enzyme is translated least efficiently, and a surprisingly strong ribosome 'stall' site was found in the movement protein gene
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists watched a plant virus hijack its host's protein-making machinery in real time, revealing how infected plants fight back and how the virus outsmarts them at the molecular level.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Changes in the translational landscape during red clover necrotic mosaic virus infection.
Viruses alter host gene expression to create a proviral environment, while the host simultaneously regulates gene expression to restrict viral spread. Owing to RNA viruses' complete reliance on the...
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Trifolium pratense, red clover, is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the bean family, Fabaceae. It is native to the Old World, but planted and naturalised in many other regions.