Tomato yellow leaf curl virus confronts host degradation by sheltering in small/midsized protein aggregates

Rena Gorovits*, Lilia Fridman, Mikhail Kolot, Or Rotem, Murad Ghanim, Oz Shriki, Henryk Czosnek

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is a begomovirus transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci to tomato and other crops. TYLCV proteins are endangered by the host defenses. We have analyzed the capacity of the tomato plant and of the whitefly insect vector to degrade the six proteins encoded by the TYLCV genome. Tomato and whitefly demonstrated the highest proteolytic activity in the fractions containing soluble proteins, less-in large protein aggregates; a significant decrease of TYLCV proteolysis was detected in the intermediate-sized aggregates. All the six TYLCV proteins were differently targeted by the cytoplasmic and nuclear degradation machineries (proteases, ubiquitin 26S proteasome, autophagy). TYLCV could confront host degradation by sheltering in small/midsized aggregates, where viral proteins are less exposed to proteolysis. Indeed, TYLCV proteins were localized in aggregates of various sizes in both host organisms. This is the first study comparing degradation machinery in plant and insect hosts targeting all TYLCV proteins.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)304-313
Number of pages10
JournalVirus Research
Volume213
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Feb 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Geminivirus
  • Immuno-localization
  • Protein aggregation
  • Protein degradation

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