Mechanisms of intra- and intercellular targeting and movement of tobacco mosaic virus.
Authors: Epel Bernard , Beachy Roger 
Published: March 2022

To cause disease, plant viruses must replicate and spread locally and systemically within the host. Cell-to-cell virus spread is mediated by virus-encoded movement proteins (MPs), which modify the structure and function of plasmodesmata (Pd), trans-wall co-axial membranous tunnels that interconnect the cytoplasm of neighboring cells. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) employ a single MP for cell- cell spread and for which CP is not required. The PIs, Beachy (USA) and Epel (Israel) and co-workers, developed new tools and approaches for study of the mechanism of spread of TMV that lead to a partial identification and molecular characterization of the cellular machinery involved in the trafficking process. Original research objectives: Based on our data and those of others, we proposed a working model of plant viral spread. Our model stated that MPᵀᴹⱽ, an integral ER membrane protein with its C-terminus exposed to the cytoplasm (Reichel and Beachy, 1998), alters the Pd SEL, causes the Pd cytoplasmic annulus to dilate (Wolf et al., 1989), allowing ER to glide through Pd and that this gliding is cytoskeleton mediated. The model claimed that in absence of MP, the ER in Pd (the desmotubule) is stationary, i.e. does not move through the Pd. Based on this model we designed a series of experiments to test the following questions: -Does MP potentiate ER movement through the Pd? - In the presence of MP, is there communication between adjacent cells via ER lumen? -Does MP potentiate the movement of cytoskeletal elements cell to cell? -Is MP required for cell-to-cell movement of ER membranes between cells in sink tissue? -Is the binding in situ of MP to RNA specific to vRNA sequences or is it nonspecific as measured in vitro? And if specific: -What sequences of RNA are involved in binding to MP? And finally, what host proteins are associated with MP during intracellular targeting to various subcellular targets and what if any post-translational modifications occur to MP, other than phosphorylation (Kawakami et al., 1999)? Major conclusions, solutions and achievements. A new quantitative tool was developed to measure the "coefficient of conductivity" of Pd to cytoplasmic soluble proteins. Employing this tool, we measured changes in Pd conductivity in epidermal cells of sink and source leaves of wild-type and transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana (N. benthamiana) plants expressing MPᵀᴹⱽ incubated both in dark and light and at 16 and 25 ᵒC (Liarzi and Epel, 2005 (appendix 1). To test our model we measured the effect of the presence of MP on cell-to-cell spread of a cytoplasmic fluorescent probe, of two ER intrinsic membrane protein-probes and two ER lumen protein-probes fused to GFP. The effect of a mutant virus that is incapable of cell-to-cell spread on the spread of these probes was also determined. Our data shows that MP reduces SEL for cytoplasmic molecules, dilates the desmotubule allowing cell-cell diffusion of proteins via the desmotubule lumen and reduces the rate of spread of the ER membrane probes. Replicase was shown to enhance cell-cell spread. The data are not in support of the proposed model and have led us to propose a new model for virus cell-cell spread: this model proposes that MP, an integral ER membrane protein, forms a MP:vRNAER complex and that this ER-membrane complex diffuses in the lipid milieu of the ER into the desmotubule (the ER within the Pd), and spreads cell to cell by simple diffusion in the ER/desmotubule membrane; the driving force for spread is the chemical potential gradient between an infected cell and contingent non-infected neighbors. Our data also suggests that the virus replicase has a function in altering the Pd conductivity. Transgenic plant lines that express the MP gene of the Cg tobamovirus fused to YFP under the control the ecdysone receptor and methoxyfenocide ligand were generated by the Beachy group and the expression pattern and the timing and targeting patterns were determined. A vector expressing this MPs was also developed for use by the Epel lab . The transgenic lines are being used to identify and isolate host genes that are required for cell-to-cell movement of TMV/tobamoviruses. This line is now being grown and to be employed in proteomic studies which will commence November 2005. T-DNA insertion mutagenesis is being developed to identify and isolate host genes required for cell-to-cell movement of TMV.