A team of researchers led by the lecturer of Biochemistry and Molecular biology of the University of Valencia, Ismael Mingarro, has described a virus transport model which could be the key to control the spread of plant viruses, according to the University's report.
Scientists of the Faculty of Biology, in partnership with another group from the Institute of Molecular and Plant Cell Biology, led by Jesús A. Sánchez-Navarro, have studied the tobacco mosaic virus 30k MP movement protein, which is responsible for the virus' genome's transfer from one cell to another. This entails the reform of previously accepted models, as it has been demonstrated that the 30k MP protein partially attaches itself to the membranes, but does not go through them. The study's conclusions have been published in the Spotlight section of the magazine Journal of Virology.
The relevance of this discovery, as pointed out by Ismael Mingarro, lies in "the greater understanding of how a virus' transport mechanism works, which gives us the chance to devise new strategies to stop them." The topological model proposed with this study is compatible with all previously described interactions of the virus' proteins with factors of the plant (host), which could not be explained with the old protein disposition model. It also allows for the search of new factors controlling these processes in subcellular compartments. "Given the similarities in the sequencing of movement proteins in different viruses, it is likely that this is the disposition generally adopted by such proteins," says Mingarro.
It is the culmination of a research project devoted to Membrane Proteins which has focused for over a decade on studying the role of biological membranes in the genome transport mechanisms of five different viruses.
Source: hortoinfo