Authors
Camila Perdoncini Carvalho, Deya Wang, Junping Han, Khwannarin Khemsom, Hanqiao Chen, Yizhi Tao, Feng Qu
Published in
PLoS pathogens. Volume 22. Issue 7. Pages e1013842. Epub Jul 07, 2026.
Abstract
Many positive-strand (+) RNA viruses produce subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs) in infected cells. sgRNAs are synthesized by virus-encoded replication proteins (RPs), but whether RPs regulate the number and sizes of sgRNAs remains largely unknown. We report multiple naturally occurring mutations within the RPs of turnip crinkle virus (TCV) that alter the number, sizes, and relative abundances of TCV sgRNAs. TCV is a (+) RNA virus that normally produces two sgRNAs: the 1,724-nucleotide (nt) sgRNA1 expressing movement proteins, and the 1,449-nt sgRNA2 expressing capsid protein. A single amino acid change, A113V, within a region shared by TCV RPs p28 and p88, diminished sgRNA1 levels and delayed viral systemic spread. Interestingly, three second-site RP mutations emerged in infected plants that, alone or in combination with A113V, resulted in over-production of sgRNA1 or accumulation of two alternative sgRNAs of 1,876 and 1,601 nt, and rescued A113V defects. The alternative sgRNAs originated from nearly identical recombination events, their size difference reflecting varying 5' extensions. They may have accumulated to high levels through selective stabilization of their (-)-strand intermediates that were in turn derived from transcriptional pausing and recombination. Our findings reveal previously unrecognized constraints on viral RPs that ensure production of sgRNAs with precise sizes and abundances.
PMID:
42412750
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Jul 2026.
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