Relocation of the NIb Gene in the Tobacco Etch Potyvirus Genome

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Potyviruses express most of their proteins from a long open reading frame that is translated into a large polyprotein processed by three viral proteases. To understand the constraints on potyvirus genome organization, we relocated the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (NIb) cistron to all possible intercistronic positions of the Tobacco etch virus (TEV) polyprotein. Only viruses with NIb at the amino terminus of the polyprotein or in between P1 and HC-Pro were viable in tobacco plants.

We thank Verónica Aragonés for excellent technical assistance. This research was supported by grant BIO2011-26741 from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) to J.-A.D., grant PROMETEO/2010/019 from Generalitat Valenciana to S.F.E. and J.-A.D., and grants BFU2012-30805 and 22371 from MINECO and the John Templeton Foundation, respectively, to S.F.E. E.M. was supported by a predoctoral fellowship (AP2012-3751) from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. M.P.Z. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract (JCI-2011-10379) from MINECO and a Rubicon grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (www.nwo.nl). The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

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