Thuenemann, EC, Byrne, MJ orcid.org/0000-0001-8111-4605, Peyret, H et al. (9 more authors) (2021) A Replicating Viral Vector Greatly Enhances Accumulation of Helical Virus-Like Particles in Plants. Viruses, 13 (5). 885. ISSN 1999-4915
Abstract
The production of plant helical virus-like particles (VLPs) via plant-based expression has been problematic with previous studies suggesting that an RNA scaffold may be necessary for their efficient production. To examine this, we compared the accumulation of VLPs from two potexviruses, papaya mosaic virus and alternanthera mosaic virus (AltMV), when the coat proteins were expressed from a replicating potato virus X- based vector (pEff) and a non-replicating vector (pEAQ-HT). Significantly greater quantities of VLPs could be purified when pEff was used. The pEff system was also very efficient at producing VLPs of helical viruses from different virus families. Examination of the RNA content of AltMV and tobacco mosaic virus VLPs produced from pEff revealed the presence of vector-derived RNA sequences, suggesting that the replicating RNA acts as a scaffold for VLP assembly. Cryo-EM analysis of the AltMV VLPs showed they had a structure very similar to that of authentic potexvirus particles. Thus, we conclude that vectors generating replicating forms of RNA, such as pEff, are very efficient for producing helical VLPs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | virus-like particle; overexpression; filamentous; rod-shaped; pEAQ-HT; pEff; Potexvirus; Potyviridae; high-resolution cryo-EM |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) > Cryo EM, Image Processing (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) > Structural Molecular Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Jun 2021 11:07 |
Last Modified: | 28 Jun 2021 11:07 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | MDPI AG |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/v13050885 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:175572 |