Abstract
RNA silencing is a potent antiviral response in plants. As a counterdefense, most plant and some animal viruses encode RNA silencing suppressors. In this study, we showed that Pns6, a putative movement protein of Rice ragged stunt virus (RRSV), exhibited silencing suppressor activity in coinfiltration assays with the reporter green fluorescent protein (GFP) in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana line 16c. Pns6 of RRSV suppressed local silencing induced by sense RNA but had no effect on that induced by dsRNA. Deletion of a region involved in RNA binding abolished the silencing suppressor activity of Pns6. Further, expression of Pns6 enhanced Potato virus × pathogenicity in N. benthamiana. Collectively, these results suggested that RRSV Pns6 functions as a virus suppressor of RNA silencing that targets an upstream step of the dsRNA formation in the RNA silencing pathway. This is the first silencing suppressor to be identified from the genus Oryzavirus.
Highlights
RNA silencing is a potent antiviral response in plants
The antiviral RNA silencing begins with the cleavage of viral dsRNAs by members of the RNase III family enzymes called Dicer or Dicer-like (DCL) in plants, which results in the production of viral small interfering RNAs (VsiRNAs)
These vsiRNAs are incorporated into an effector complex named RNA induced silencing complex (RISC) and direct the complex to destroy viral RNAs [15,16]
Summary
RNA silencing is a potent antiviral response in plants. As a counterdefense, most plant and some animal viruses encode RNA silencing suppressors. These results suggested that RRSV Pns6 functions as a virus suppressor of RNA silencing that targets an upstream step of the dsRNA formation in the RNA silencing pathway. Many recent studies demonstrated that VSRs could target protein components of RNA silencing [for a review see 22].
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