Variability, Functions and Interactions of Plant Virus Movement Proteins: What Do We Know So Far?

Abstract

Of the various proteins encoded by plant viruses, one of the most interesting is the movement protein (MP). MPs are unique to plant viruses and show surprising structural and functional variability while maintaining their core function, which is to facilitate the intercellular transport of viruses or viral nucleoprotein complexes. MPs interact with components of the intercellular channels, the plasmodesmata (PD), modifying their size exclusion limits and thus allowing larger particles, including virions, to pass through. The interaction of MPs with the components of PD, the formation of transport complexes and the recruitment of host cellular components have all revealed different facets of their functions. Multitasking is an inherent property of most viral proteins, and MPs are no exception. Some MPs carry out multitasking, which includes gene silencing suppression, viral replication and modulation of host protein turnover machinery. This review brings together the current knowledge on MPs, focusing on their structural variability, various functions and interactions with host proteins.

The Effects of Turnip Mosaic Virus Infections on the Deposition of Secondary Cell Walls and Developmental Defects in Arabidopsis Plants Are Virus-Strain Specific

“…A role for virus-induced modifications of plant cell wall structure has long been recognized. Plant viruses encode proteins (movement proteins, MPs) whose main function is to promote and mediate virus intercellular movement, thus propagating the infection to still uninfected cells (Dorokhov et al, 2020;Kumar and Dasgupta, 2021). In order to move, viruses need to overcome the formidable barrier of the wall and mostly do it by increasing the size exclusion limit (SEL) of wallcrossing plasmodesmata.…”

Sorting motifs target the movement protein of ourmia melon virus to the trans-Golgi network and plasmodesmata

“…Indeed, localization of viral MPs to PD has been demonstrated, and some MPs can increase the PD size exclusion limit to enable the movement of viruses into adjacent cells (1,2). Viral MPs use various transport strategies to reach PD and interact with several host factors to regulate movement processes (3)(4)(5). A well-studied viral MP, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) MP, recruits cytoskeleton components (6)(7)(8)(9), host factors involved in the intra-and intercellular transport (10)(11)(12), and cellular membranes (13).…”

Optimizing RNAi-Target by Nicotiana benthamiana-Soybean Mosaic Virus System Drives Broad Resistance to Soybean Mosaic Virus in Soybean

“…Without this dual-utilization of T 1 -plants, many more transgenic plants have to be obtained and used in identifying their resistance. Of course, this procedure may have some issues out of expectation in SMV-resistance identification of non-transgenic soybean germplasm resources, such as the movement of the virus to the system leaves may be blocked in some soybean varieties, where even the inoculated-leaves can be infected by SMV ( Wu and Cheng, 2020 ; Kumar and Dasgupta, 2021 ). In this case, the results of SMV resistance from the detached-leaves might appear false negative.…”