Plant Translation Elongation Factor 1Bβ Facilitates Potato Virus X (PVX) Infection and Interacts with PVX Triple Gene Block Protein 1

PLoS One. 2015 May 28;10(5):e0128014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128014. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1 (eEF1) has two components: the G-protein eEF1A and the nucleotide exchange factor eEF1B. In plants, eEF1B is itself composed of a structural protein (eEF1Bγ) and two nucleotide exchange subunits (eEF1Bα and eEF1Bβ). To test the effects of elongation factors on virus infection, we isolated eEF1A and eEF1B genes from pepper (Capsicum annuum) and suppressed their homologs in Nicotiana benthamiana using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). The accumulation of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged Potato virus X (PVX) was significantly reduced in the eEF1Bβ- or eEF1Bɣ-silenced plants as well as in eEF1A-silenced plants. Yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that eEF1Bα and eEF1Bβ interacted with eEF1A and that eEF1A and eEF1Bβ interacted with triple gene block protein 1 (TGBp1) of PVX. These results suggest that both eEF1A and eEF1Bβ play essential roles in the multiplication of PVX by physically interacting with TGBp1. Furthermore, using eEF1Bβ deletion constructs, we found that both N- (1-64 amino acids) and C-terminal (150-195 amino acids) domains of eEF1Bβ are important for the interaction with PVX TGBp1 and that the C-terminal domain of eEF1Bβ is involved in the interaction with eEF1A. These results suggest that eEF1Bβ could be a potential target for engineering virus-resistant plants.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Capsicum / genetics
  • Capsicum / metabolism*
  • Capsicum / virology
  • Disease Resistance
  • Nicotiana / genetics
  • Nicotiana / metabolism*
  • Nicotiana / virology
  • Peptide Elongation Factor 1 / genetics
  • Peptide Elongation Factor 1 / metabolism*
  • Plant Diseases / virology*
  • Plant Proteins / genetics
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism
  • Plants, Genetically Modified
  • Potexvirus / genetics
  • Potexvirus / metabolism*
  • RNA Helicases / genetics
  • RNA Helicases / metabolism*
  • Viral Proteins / genetics
  • Viral Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Peptide Elongation Factor 1
  • Plant Proteins
  • Viral Proteins
  • RNA Helicases

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Golden Seed Project, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF), Rural Development Administration (RDA) and Korea Forest Service (KFS) and a grant (Project No. 710001-07) from the Vegetable Breeding Research Center through the R&D Convergence Center Support Program, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) Republic of Korea. The authors thank S.P. Dinesh-Kumar (University of California, Davis) for the TRV-LIC vector, K.H. Kim (Seoul National University) for PVX-GFP and D. Choi (Seoul National University) for access to the C. annuum sequence database.