We investigated the interaction of Rice grassy stunt tenuivirus (RGSV) nonstructural protein p5, a protein of 22 kDa encoded on vRNA 5, with all 12 RGSV proteins by using a GAL4 transcription activator-based yeast two-hybrid system. The p5 protein interacted only with itself and not with any other viral protein; the interacting domains were localized within the N-terminal 96 amino acids of p5. The p5-p5 interaction was reproduced in an Sos recruitment-mediated yeast two-hybrid system as well in by far-Western blots. Native p5 protein extracted from RGSV-infected rice tissue was detected in a large complex with a molecular mass of approximately 260 kDa composed of 12 molecules of p5 or a p5 oligomer with an unidentified host factor(s).The genome of Rice grassy stunt tenuivirus (RGSV), a member in the genus Tenuivirus (12) and an important rice pathogen in East, Southeast, and South Asian countries (8), consists of six ambisense RNA segments containing a total of 12 open reading frames (ORFs) (13,16,17). RGSV replicates and is transmitted by a brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stal) (9). So far, little has been known about the functions of the individual RGSV proteins, except for the 339-kDa RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) encoded on the complementary strand of RNA 1 (cRNA 1) and the 36-kDa nucleocapsid protein (N) encoded on cRNA 5 ( Fig. 1), both of which are found along with genomic and possibly complementary RNAs as thin filamentous ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particles. Recently, we showed that the 22-kDa p5 protein encoded on the virus genomic strand of RNA 5 (vRNA 5) accumulates in large amounts in both RGSV-infected rice leaves and viruliferous brown planthoppers, while the 23-kDa p2 protein encoded on vRNA 2 and the 21-kDa p6 protein encoded on vRNA 6 were preferentially expressed in infected rice leaf tissues rather than in viruliferous insects (5). We hypothesized that p5 has an essential role in virus infection in both the plant and insect hosts (5).In this study, we investigated possible interactions between the p5 protein and the other RGSV proteins by using a GAL4 transcription activator-based yeast two-hybrid system (4, 6). We found that p5 interacts with itself through domains located in the N-terminal half of the protein, but does not interact with any other RGSV protein with this yeast two-hybrid system. The p5-p5 interaction was confirmed by an Sos recruitment-mediated yeast two-hybrid system (1, 2) as well as by far-Western blots, indicating that the strength of the p5-p5 interaction is significant and suggesting that the interaction is biologically significant as well.
p5-p5 interaction in the N-terminal region detected by a GAL4 transcription activator-based yeast two-hybrid system.Interactions between the p5 protein and all 12 RGSV proteins were examined by using a yeast two-hybrid system based on the GAL4 transcription activator (4, 6) (MatchMaker 2; Clontech). In this system, the yeast GAL4 transcription activator has been separated into two functional domains: (i) the DNA binding act...