Relación estructura-función de las proteínas virales implicadas en el movimiento de los carmovirus y su interacción con factores celulares

[EN] Previous results obtained in the research group where this thesis has been performed shown that the MNSV uses the cellular secretory pathway, through its membrane protein DGBp2 (p7B) to reach the cell periphery. Knowledge about signals/motifs of membrane proteins that facilitate or permit such transport was then rather scarce. In this work we determined the residues involved in the transport of a viral transmembrane protein through the early secretory pathway (DGBp2, MNSV p7B). The residues involved are located in both the Nt (cytosolic) and Ct region (luminal) being one of the first examples in plants of a luminal ER export signal. With this information we have proposed a model in which after insertion and correct folding of the protein in the ER membrane, the luminal Ct of p7B interacts through the K49 residue with a transmembrane adapter associated with the actin cytoskeleton for movement and concentration in the RE-cortical. Nt cytoplasmic seems to be necessary to associate with the COPII vesicle components. Moreover, we have deepened in the study of the interactome of the carmovirus MPs and we have identified through a two-hybrid assay (Y2H), three cellular proteins capable of interacting with three DGBp1 from three different carmovirus (MNSV, TCV and CarMV). These cellular factors are the 60S ribosomal protein P3 (RPP3A), the g subunit of the translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3g) and the transcription factor WRKY36. These interactions were confirmed by BiFC. Furthermore, mutagenesis assays showed that binding domain of these DGBp1 is a FNF conserved domain at the very Ct end. The fact that these three proteins interact with the same host factors suggest a possible mechanism common to most if not all carmoviruses. The unstructured Nt region of MNSV CP, as for other RNA viruses, generally is responsible for viral RNA binding so it is usually called R domain. By using substitution and deletion mutants, we have shown that this R domain (which in MNSV comprising the first 94 residues) is not involved only in the packaging and binding of the viral genome, but is also responsible of CP multifunctionality. By EMSA assays with deletion mutants we could determine that the R domain was essential for binding of RNA. It was further noted that within the R domain there was a conserved region between aa 60 to 91 region, which appears to play a role in both the genomic RNA binding and in vitro encapsidation of subgenomic RNAs. However, in packaging assays, it