Plant Virus Movement

Michael E Taliansky, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, UK
Lesley Torrance, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, UK

Published online: May 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020711

Plant virus movement is the process of the spread of virus genetic material from the initially infected cells to the rest of the plant. There are several distinct stages including intracellular movement from sites of virus replication out of the initially infected cell, cell-to-cell trafficking through plasmodesmata (plant-specific intercellular membranous channels) and long-distance movement between organs through the phloem (the specialized vascular system used by plants for the transport of assimilates and macromolecules).

Keywords: movement proteins; systemic infection; ribonucleoprotein particles; RNA binding; triple gene block; tubules

Figure 1. Electron micrographs showing longitudinal section of PD and cross-section of the vascular system of Nicotiana benthamiana plant, routes of cell-to-cell and long-distance virus movement, respectively. (A) Paired PD span cell wall (CW) linking the cytoplasm of two neighbouring cells. Bar, 0.4 m (courtesy of Karl Oparka, Ian Roberts and Alison Roberts). (B) Typical section of class V vein showing bundle sheath (BS) cells, xylem parenchyma (XP) cell, xylem vessel and different types of phloem-associated cells: phloem parenchyma (PP), companion cells (CC) and sieve elements (SE). Bar, 2 m (courtesy of Michael Taliansky).
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 Further Reading
    Dolja VV, Kreuze JF and Valkonen JP (2006) Comparative and functional genomics of closteroviruses. Virus Research 117: 38–51.
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    Lucas WJ (2006) Plant viral movement proteins: agents for cell-to-cell trafficking of viral genomes. Virology 344: 169–184.
    Mushegian AR and Koonin EV (1993) Cell-to-cell-movement of plant viruses. Insights from amino acid sequence comparisons of movement proteins and from analogies with cellular transport system. Archives of Virology 133: 239–257.
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    Oparka KJ and Turgeon R (1999) Sieve elements and companion cells – traffic control centers of the phloem. Plant Cell 11: 739–750.
    Taliansky ME and Robinson DJ (2003) Molecular biology of umbraviruses: phantom warriors. Journal of General Virology 84: 1951–1960.
    Torrance L, Andreev IA, Gabrenaite-Verhovskaya R et al. (2006) An unusual structure at one end of potato potyvirus particles. Journal of Molecular Biology 357: 1–8.

Related Sub-Topics:

Viruses Infecting Plants | Plant Disease
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Article Title: Plant Virus Movement
 
How to Cite close
Taliansky, Michael E, and Torrance, Lesley(May 2008) Plant Virus Movement. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020711]