How RNA viruses exchange their genetic material.

How RNA Interference Combat Viruses in Plants

Mechanisms of genetic robustness in RNA viruses.

Two key features of RNA viruses are their compacted genomes and their high mutation rate. Accordingly, deleterious mutations are common and have an enormous impact on viral fitness. In their multicellular hosts, robustness can be achieved by genomic redundancy, including gene duplication, diploidy, alternative metabolic pathways and biochemical buffering mechanisms. However, here we review evid...

How Do Viruses Interact with Stress-Associated RNA Granules?

Host mRNAs are always dynamically exchanged between translating and non-translating pools. Non-translating pools are organized into specialized RNA granules called stress granules (SGs) and processing bodies (P-bodies, PBs), which have fundamental roles in inhibition and degradation of host mRNAs (Figure 1) [1]. Virus infection usually results in interference in many cell processes in ways that...

Exchange of genetic material between cells in plant tissue grafts.

Tissue grafting includes applications ranging from plant breeding to animal organ transplantation. Donor and recipient are generally believed to maintain their genetic integrity, in that the grafted tissues are joined but their genetic materials do not mix. We grafted tobacco plants from two transgenic lines carrying different marker and reporter genes in different cellular compartments, the nu...

Genetic manipulation of non-segmented negative-strand RNA viruses.

Negative-strand RNA viruses are a large and diverse group of enveloped viruses of both medical and economic significance. They are found in hosts from the plant and animal kingdoms, and have a wide range of morphologies, biological properties and genome organizations. A major distinction is made between viruses whose genome consists of a single RNA molecule (order Mononegavirales), including th...