Interaction of Sesbania mosaic virus movement protein with the coat protein - implications for viral spread

Sesbania mosaic virus (SeMV) is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA plant virus belonging to the genus Sobemovirus. The movement protein (MP) encoded by SeMV ORF1 showed no significant sequence similarity with MPs of other genera, but showed 32% identity with the MP of Southern bean mosaic virus within the Sobemovirus genus. With a view to understanding the mechanism of cell-to-cell movement in sobemoviruses, the SeMV MP gene was cloned, over-expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. Interaction of the recombinant MP with the native virus (NV) was investigated by ELISA and pull-down assays. It was observed that SeMV MP interacted with NV in a concentration- and pH-dependent manner. Analysis of N- and C-terminal deletion mutants of the MP showed that SeMV MP interacts with the NV through the N- terminal 49 amino acid segment. Yeast two-hybrid assays confirmed the in vitro observations, and suggested that SeMV might belong to the class of viruses that require MP and NV/coat protein for cell-to-cell movement.