Involvement of Translationally controlled tumor protein in Tomato yellow spot virus infection

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Andrade, Patrícia Oliveira
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Interação vírus-Planta; TCTP; ToYSV; Microbiologia Agrícola
• Link de acesso: http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/21427

Viruses are the most abundant and genetically diverse life forms known in our biosphere. To successfully infect hosts, viruses manipulate host cellular components, recruiting host factors necessary for replication, infection, and transmission. In addition, viruses need to supplant various host defense strategies, leading to a complex coevolution mechanism involving virus-host interactions. Different viruses can interact with host cell components similarly or even antagonistic. The presence of the protein translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) has been shown to be necessary for the establishment of an efficient potyvirus infection. TCTP is a multifunctional protein found in almost all eukaryotes and is involved in cell growth; ions homeostasis; DNA damage repair and anti-apoptotic activity. Despite numerous studies with TCTP, the involvement of this protein in viral infection is not yet fully understood. Due to its functional diversity, it is possible to imagine that TCTP may be a host factor involved in infections caused by viruses of different groups. Thus, in this work, the effect of TCTP on begomovirus infection was evaluated. Nicotiana benthamiana plants silenced for TCTP by VIGS experiments were used to study the effect of TCTP expression on infection by the begomovirus Tomato yellow spot virus (ToYSV). TCTP silencing led to higher accumulation of the virus, suggesting that TCTP is a host factor involved in viral infection defense process. Furthermore, TCTP mRNA is highly structured in mammals and is related to the induction of defense response to different viruses. Because it is a highly structured mRNA, it is reasonable to assume that TCTP mRNA may be the target of the plant post transcription gene silencing mechanism, leading to the production of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by the cleavage of Dicer proteins and the siRNAs generated might regulate the expression of host endogenous genes involves in virus infection. In silico analysis was performed to evaluate the possible siRNAs generated from the silencing of TCTP mRNA, and the respective targets of this siRNAs. Genes involved in viral infection, such as those encoding protein kinases, proteins involved in the ubiquitination pathway, transcription and translation factors, and calcium binding proteins were some of the genes identified as possible targets of these predicted siRNAs.