Author: ["Vitaly Boyko","Jacqueline Ferralli","Jamie Ashby","Paul Schellenbaum","Manfred Heinlein"]
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Abstract
Cell-to-cell progression of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection in plants depends on virus-encoded movement protein (MP). Here we show that a conserved sequence motif in tobamovirus MPs shares similarity with a region in tubulins that is proposed to mediate lateral contacts between microtubule protofilaments. Point mutations in this motif confer temperature sensitivity to microtubule association and viral-RNA intercellular-transport functions of the protein, indicating that MP-interacting microtubules are functionally involved in the transport of vRNA to plasmodesmata. Moreover, we show that MP interacts with microtubule-nucleation sites. Together, our results indicate that MP may mimic tubulin assembly surfaces to propel vRNA transport by a dynamic process that is driven by microtubule polymerization.Cite this article
Boyko, V., Ferralli, J., Ashby, J. et al. Function of microtubules in intercellular transport of plant virus RNA. Nat Cell Biol 2, 826–832 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35041072 