Chrysanthemum Chlorotic Mottle Viroid-Mediated Trafficking of Foreign mRNA into Chloroplasts

Abstract

Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid (CChMVd) fused to the leader sequence of a reporter gene (mRFP) expressed transiently in agroinfiltrated Nicotiana benthamiana, was used to show that CChMVd can traffic into chloroplasts, thought to be the site of its replication. Fluorescence from mRFP was detected in chloroplasts, but only if the viroid transcription fusions were present, either from the full-length 400-nt CChMVd, or each of two partial fragments (nucleotides 125 to 2 and 231 to 372). The mRFP and its mRNA were detected by western blotting and RT-PCR, respectively, in tissue extracts of plants infiltrated by each fusion construct. Isolated chloroplasts were shown by RT-PCR to contain the RNA sequences of both CChMVd and mRFP, if both were present, but not the mRFP sequence in the absence of the viroid sequences. The results suggest that RNA trafficking was probably due to an RNA structure, and not a particular sequence, as discussed.

Keywords

• Chloroplast trafficking
• Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid
• Nicotiana benthamiana
• Red fluorescent protein