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| Subject Categories: RNA | Plant Biology |
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| The EMBO Journal
(2007) 26, 3836–3846, doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601812 Published online 26 July 2007 |
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| Tertiary structure and function of an RNA motif required for plant vascular entry to initiate systemic trafficking |
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| Xuehua Zhong1, 3, Xiaorong Tao1, 3, Jesse Stombaugh2, Neocles Leontis2 and Biao Ding1 |
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1 Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology and Plant Biotechnology Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 2 Department of Chemistry and Center for Biomolecular Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA To whom correspondence should be addressed Biao Ding, Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology and Plant Biotechnology Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. Tel.: +1 614 247 6077; Fax: +1 614 292 5379; E-mail: ding.35@osu.edu Neocles Leontis, Department of Chemistry and Center for Biomolecular Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43404, USA. Tel.: +1 419 372 8663; Fax: +1 419 372 9809; E-mail: leontis@bgnet.bgsu.edu 3 These authors contributed equally to this work Received 24 April 2007; Accepted 2 July 2007; Published online 26 July 2007. |
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| Abstract |
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| Vascular entry is a decisive step for the initiation of long-distance movement of infectious and endogenous RNAs, silencing signals and developmental/defense signals in plants. However, the mechanisms remain poorly understood. We used Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) as a model to investigate the direct role of the RNA itself in vascular entry. We report here the identification of an RNA motif that is required for PSTVd to traffic from nonvascular into the vascular tissue phloem to initiate systemic infection. This motif consists of nucleotides U/C that form a water-inserted cis Watson–Crick/Watson–Crick base pair flanked by short helices that comprise canonical Watson–Crick/Watson–Crick base pairs. This tertiary structural model was inferred by comparison with X-ray crystal structures of similar motifs in rRNAs and is supported by combined mutagenesis and covariation analyses. Hydration pattern analysis suggests that water insertion induces a widened minor groove conducive to protein and/or RNA interactions. Our model and approaches have broad implications to investigate the RNA structural motifs in other RNAs for vascular entry and to study the basic principles of RNA structure–function relationships. |
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| Keywords: phloem, RNA motif, RNA structure, RNA trafficking, viroid |
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Top of page MORE ARTICLES LIKE THISThese links to content published by NPG are automatically generated RESEARCHThe EMBO Journal Article Nature Biotechnology Research Article (01 Nov 1997) Peptide antagonists of the plasmodesmal macromolecular trafficking pathway The EMBO Journal Article (15 Jun 2000) |
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