Rice stripe virus p2 protein interacts with ATG5 and is targeted for degradation by autophagy

Xiangxiang Zhang; Qionglian Wan; Penghuan Rui; Yuwen Lu; Zongtao Sun; Jianping Chen; Yunyue Wang; Fei Yan

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1191403

Rice stripe virus p2 protein interacts with ATG5 and is targeted for degradation by autophagy

Front Microbiol. 2023 Apr 28:14:1191403. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1191403. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiangxiang Zhang^{1

2}, Qionglian Wan^{1

2}, Penghuan Rui^{2

3}, Yuwen Lu², Zongtao Sun², Jianping Chen^{1

2

3}, Yunyue Wang¹, Fei Yan^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Plant Protection College, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China.
² State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Biotechnology in Plant Protection of MARA and Zhejiang Province, Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.

Abstract

Autophagy can be induced by viral infection and plays antiviral roles in plants, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. In our previous reports, we have demonstrated that the plant ATG5 plays an essential role in activating autophagy in rice stripe virus (RSV)-infected plants. We also showed that eIF4A, a negative factor of autophagy, interacts with and inhibits ATG5. We here found that RSV p2 protein interacts with ATG5 and can be targeted by autophagy for degradation. Expression of p2 protein induced autophagy and p2 protein was shown to interfere with the interaction between ATG5 and eIF4A, while eIF4A had no effect on the interaction between ATG5 and p2. These results indicate an additional information on the induction of autophagy in RSV-infected plants.

Keywords: ATG5; autophagy; degradation; eIF4A; interaction; p2; rice stripe virus.