A molecular tug-of-war: Global plant proteome changes during viral infection

Authors: ALEXANDER, MARIKO - Cornell University; Heck, Michelle

Submitted to: Current Plant Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2017
Publication Date: 5/11/2017
Citation: Alexander, M., Cilia, M. 2017. A molecular tug-of-war: Global plant proteome changes during viral infection. Current Plant Biology. 5:13-24.

Interpretive Summary: Virus infection is a major cause of crop loss world-wide. Viruses are incredible manipulators, changing the physiology of plant hosts and insect vectors to promote their own spread and propagation with very few genes. The war between viruses and plants is fought largely between virus and plant proteins. Proteins are molecular machines with specific shapes and functions. This paper is a critical review of the state of knowledge of how virus and plant proteins function during viral infection. We propose a new hypothesis that virus infection in plants serves to support plant-to-plant virus transmission, that is, plant viruses encode a variety of replication strategies, and these strategies maximize the ability of plant viruses to spread to new host plants.

Technical Abstract: Plant pathogenic viruses cause a number of economically important diseases in food, fuel, and fiber crops worldwide. As obligate parasites with highly reduced genomes, viruses rely heavily on their hosts for replication, assembly, intra- and intercellular movement, and attraction of vectors for dispersal. Therefore, viruses must influence or directly utilize many host proteins and processes. While many general effects of virus infection have long been known (e.g., reduction in photosynthesis, alterations in carbon metabolism and partitioning, increased expression of pathogenesis-related proteins), the precise underlying mechanisms and functions in the viral life cycle are largely a mystery. Proteomic studies, including studies of differential protein regulation during infection as well as studies of host–viral protein–protein interactions, can help shed light on the complex and varied molecular interactions between viruses and plant hosts. In this review, we summarize current literature in plant-virus proteomics and speculate on why viruses have been selected to manipulate these diverse biochemical pathways in their plant hosts.