A natural substitution of a conserved amino acid in eIF4E confers resistance against multiple potyviruses.

Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), which plays a pivotal role in initiating translation in eukaryotic organisms, is often hijacked by the viral genome-linked protein to facilitate the infection of potyviruses. In this study, we found that the naturally occurring amino acid substitution D71G in eIF4E is widely present in potyvirus-resistant watermelon accessions and disrupts the interaction between watermelon eIF4E and viral genome-linked protein of papaya ringspot virus-watermelon strain, zucchini yellow mosaic virus or watermelon mosaic virus. Multiple sequence alignment and protein modelling showed that the amino acid residue D located in the cap-binding pocket of eIF4E is strictly conserved in many plant species.

Potato virus Y viral protein 6K1 inhibits the interaction between defense proteins during virus infection.

14-3-3 proteins play vital roles in plant defense against various pathogen invasions. To date, how 14-3-3 affects virus infections in plants remains largely unclear. In this study, we found that Nicotiana benthamiana 14-3-3h interacts with TRANSLATIONALLY CONTROLLED TUMOR PROTEIN (TCTP), a susceptibility factor of potato virus Y (PVY).

A maize triacylglycerol lipase inhibits sugarcane mosaic virus infection.

Triacylglycerol lipase (TGL) plays critical roles in providing energy for seed germination and plant development. However, the role of TGL in regulating plant virus infection is largely unknown. In this study, we adopted affinity purification coupled with mass spectrometry and identified that a maize (Zea mays) pathogenesis-related lipase protein Z.

Development and Evaluation of Stable Sugarcane Mosaic Virus Mild Mutants for Cross-Protection Against Infection by Severe Strain.

Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV; genus ) induces maize dwarf mosaic disease that has caused serious yield losses of maize in China. Cross-protection is one of the efficient strategies to fight against severe virus strains. Although many mild strains have been identified, the spontaneous mutation is one of the challenging problems affecting their application in cross-protection.

The chloroplast ribosomal protein large subunit 1 interacts with viral polymerase and promotes virus infection.

Chloroplasts play an indispensable role in the arms race between plant viruses and hosts. Chloroplast proteins are often recruited by plant viruses to support viral replication and movement. However, the mechanism by which chloroplast proteins regulate potyvirus infection remains largely unknown.

Identification of genetic determinants of tomato brown rugose fruit virus that enable infection of plants harbouring the Tm-2 resistance gene.

Tomato cultivars containing the Tm-2 resistance gene have been widely known to resist tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and tomato mosaic virus. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a new emerging tobamovirus, can infect tomato plants carrying the Tm-2 gene. However, the virulence determinant of ToBRFV that overcomes the resistance conferred by the Tm-2 gene remains unclear.

A Predicted Stem Loop in Coat Protein-Coding Sequence of Tobacco Vein Banding Mosaic Virus Is Required for Efficient Replication.

Potyviral coat protein (CP) is involved in the replication and movement of potyviruses. However, little information is available on the roles of CP-coding sequence in potyviral infection. Here, we introduced synonymous substitutions to the codon CGC coding conserved residue arginine at position 192 (R) of tobacco vein banding mosaic virus (TVBMV) CP.

Residues R and K in RNA-Binding Pocket of Tobacco Vein Banding Mosaic Virus CP Control Virus Cell-to-Cell Movement and Replication.

Potyviruses move to neighboring cells in the form of virus particles or a coat protein (CP)-containing ribonucleoprotein complex. However, the precise roles of RNA-binding residues in potyviral CP in viral cell-to-cell movement remain to be elucidated. In this study, we predicted the three-dimensional model of tobacco vein banding mosaic virus (TVBMV)-encoded CP and found nine residues presumably located in the CP RNA-binding pocket.

Anxiolytic potency of iridoid fraction extracted from Valeriana jatamansi Jones and its mechanism: a preliminary study.

Valeriana jatamansi Jones (V. jatamansi) has been widely used for treating anxiety and its mechanism involves many aspects including GABA level. This study aimed to evaluate the anxiolytic potency of an iridoid fraction extracted from the radix and rhizomes of V.

Transcriptomic changes in Nicotiana benthamiana plants inoculated with the wild-type or an attenuated mutant of Tobacco vein banding mosaic virus.

Tobacco vein banding mosaic virus (TVBMV) is a potyvirus which mainly infects solanaceous crops. The helper component proteinase (HCpro) of a potyvirus is an RNA silencing suppressor protein and determines the severity of disease symptoms caused by different potyviruses, including TVBMV. It has been shown that substitution mutations introduced into the HCpro open reading frame (ORF) in a TVBMV infectious clone result in changes of Asp to Lys or Ile -Gln to Asp-Glu (Asp, aspartic acid; Gln, glutamine; Glu, glutamic acid; Ile, isoleucine).

[Source Apportionment and Health Risk Assessment of VOCs During the Haze Period in the Winter in Beijing].

A method for determining volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by cryogenic dynamic adsorption in solid adsorbent tubes, subsequent thermal desorption with cryofocusing in a cold trap and analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry was adapted for continuous ambient air monitoring. VOCs pollution characteristics and health risk assessment (HRA)were researched in detail. Moreover, the sources apportionment was reliably analyzed by positive matrix factorization (PMF) model.

A study of the substance dependence effect of the ethanolic extract and iridoid-rich fraction from Valeriana jatamansi Jones in mice.

Background: Recently we found the ethanolic extract and iridoid-rich fraction from Valeriana jatamansi Jones, which is a traditional Chinese medicine exhibited anxiolytic properties.

Objective: This study aims to the substance dependence effect of the ethanolic extract and iridoid-rich fraction.

Materials And Methods: The study included two experiments: Mice were given orally with ethanolic extract for 12 weeks or iridoid-rich fraction for 16 weeks in experiment I and experiment II, respectively.

[The expression and anti-apoptotic function of HCMV IE2 protein controlled by Tet-On system].

During the infection of host cells, IE2 protein is one of the first and most abundantly expressed products of HCMV genome, which plays an important role in the controlling of cell cycle and apoptosis. But the correlation between expression level and anti-apoptotic activity of IE2 protein is still not clear. In this study, we successfully established a HCMV IE2 protein expression cell line that was controlled by Tet-On system.

[Molecular typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from hospitalized patients in Qingdao].

Objective: To explore the molecular types of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains present in major hospitals in Qingdao area, using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) methods, trying to find out the epidemiological characteristics of these MRSA isolates. Correlation of the PFGE types with microbiological phenotypes and clinical data was also studied.

Methods: 360 isolates of MRSA were procured during 2003 to 2007 from major hospitals in Qingdao.

Isolation of a cDNA encoding a protease from Perinereis aibuhitensis Grube.

The cDNA encoding a protease of Perinereis aibuhitensis Grube (PPA) was cloned. The deduced amino acid sequence analysis showed that the protein had 49% identity to the C-terminal amino acid 169-246 of serine protease of Heterodera glycines. Northern blotting analysis indicated that the cDNA could hybridize with mRNA of approximately 260 bases isolated from the marine earthworm.