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Bücher und Buchkapitel

Carbonell, A.; Flores, R.; Gago, S.; Hammerhead Ribozymes Against Virus and Viroid RNAs (Erdmann, V. A. & Barciszewski, J., eds.). RNA Technologies 411-427, (2012) ISBN: 978-3-642-27426-8 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-27426-8_16

The hammerhead ribozyme, a small catalytic motif that promotes self-cleavage of the RNAs in which it is found naturally embedded, can be manipulated to recognize and cleave specifically in trans other RNAs in the presence of Mg2+. To be really effective, hammerheads need to operate at the low concentration of Mg2+ existing in vivo. Evidence has been gathered along the last years showing that tertiary stabilizing motifs (TSMs), particularly interactions between peripheral loops, are critical for the catalytic activity of hammerheads at physiological levels of Mg2+. These TSMs, in two alternative formats, have been incorporated into a new generation of more efficient trans-cleaving hammerheads, some of which are active in vitro and in planta when targeted against the highly structured RNA of a viroid (a small plant pathogen). This strategy has potential to confer protection against other RNA replicons, like RNA viruses infecting plants and animals.
Publikation

Flores, R.; Grubb, D.; Elleuch, A.; Nohales, M.-?.; Delgado, S.; Gago, S.; Rolling-circle replication of viroids, viroid-like satellite RNAs and hepatitis delta virus: Variations on a theme RNA Biol. 8, 200-206, (2011) DOI: 10.4161/rna.8.2.14238

Viroids and viroid-like satellite RNAs from plants, and the human hepatitis delta virus (HDV) RNA share some properties that include small size, circularity and replication through a rolling-circle mechanism. Replication occurs in different cell compartments (nucleus, chloroplast and membrane-associated cytoplasmatic vesicles) and has three steps: RNA polymerization, cleavage and ligation. The first step generates oligomeric RNAs that result from the reiterative transcription of the circular templates of one or both polarities, and is catalyzed by either the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of the helper virus on which viroid-like satellite RNAs are functionally dependent, or by host DNA-dependent RNA polymerases that, remarkably, viroids and HDV redirect to transcribe RNA templates. Cleavage is mediated by host enzymes in certain viroids and viroid-like satellite RNAs, while in others and in HDV is mediated by cis-acting ribozymes of three classes. Ligation appears to be catalyzed mainly by host enzymes. Replication most likely also involves many other non-catalytic proteins of host origin and, in HDV, the single virus-encoded protein.
Publikation

Carbonell, A.; Flores, R.; Gago, S.; Trans-cleaving hammerhead ribozymes with tertiary stabilizing motifs: in vitro and in vivo activity against a structured viroid RNA Nucleic Acids Res. 39, 2432-2444, (2011) DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkq1051

Trans -cleaving hammerheads with discontinuous or extended stem I and with tertiary stabilizing motifs (TSMs) have been tested previously against short RNA substrates in vitro at low Mg 2+ concentration. However, the potential of these ribozymes for targeting longer and structured RNAs in vitro and in vivo has not been examined. Here, we report the in vitro cleavage of short RNAs and of a 464-nt highly structured RNA from potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) by hammerheads with discontinuous and extended formats at submillimolar Mg 2+ . Under these conditions, hammerheads derived from eggplant latent viroid and peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd) with discontinuous and extended formats, respectively, where the most active. Furthermore, a PLMVd-derived hammerhead with natural TSMs showed activity in vivo against the same long substrate and interfered with systemic PSTVd infection, thus reinforcing the idea that this class of ribozymes has potential to control pathogenic RNA replicons.
Publikation

Renovell, ?.; Gago, S.; Ruiz-Ruiz, S.; Velázquez, K.; Navarro, L.; Moreno, P.; Vives, M. C.; Guerri, J.; Mapping the subgenomic RNA promoter of the Citrus leaf blotch virus coat protein gene by Agrobacterium-mediated inoculation Virology 406, 360-369, (2010) DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2010.07.034

Citrus leaf blotch virus has a single-stranded positive-sense genomic RNA (gRNA) of 8747 nt organized in three open reading frames (ORFs). The ORF1, encoding a polyprotein involved in replication, is translated directly from the gRNA, whereas ORFs encoding the movement (MP) and coat (CP) proteins are expressed via 3' coterminal subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs). We characterized the minimal promoter region critical for the CP-sgRNA expression in infected cells by deletion analyses using Agrobacterium-mediated infection of Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The minimal CP-sgRNA promoter was mapped between nucleotides −67 and + 50 nt around the transcription start site. Surprisingly, larger deletions in the region between the CP-sgRNA transcription start site and the CP translation initiation codon resulted in increased CP-sgRNA accumulation, suggesting that this sequence could modulate the CP-sgRNA transcription. Site-specific mutational analysis of the transcription start site revealed that the + 1 guanylate and the + 2 adenylate are important for CP-sgRNA synthesis.
Publikation

Gago, S.; Elena, S. F.; Flores, R.; Sanjuan, R.; Extremely High Mutation Rate of a Hammerhead Viroid Science 323, 1308-1308, (2009) DOI: 10.1126/science.1169202

The mutation rates of viroids, plant pathogens with minimal non-protein-coding RNA genomes, are unknown. Their replication is mediated by host RNA polymerases and, in some cases, by hammerhead ribozymes, small self-cleaving motifs embedded in the viroid. By using the principle that the population frequency of nonviable genotypes equals the mutation rate, we screened for changes that inactivated the hammerheads of Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid. We obtained a mutation rate of 1/400 per site, the highest reported for any biological entity. Such error-prone replication can only be tolerated by extremely simple genomes such as those of viroids and, presumably, the primitive replicons of the RNA world. Our results suggest that the emergence of replication fidelity was critical for the evolution of complexity in the early history of life.
Publikation

Flores, R.; Gas, M.-E.; Molina-Serrano, D.; Nohales, M.-?.; Carbonell, A.; Gago, S.; De la Peña, M.; Daròs, J.-A.; Viroid Replication: Rolling-Circles, Enzymes and Ribozymes Viruses 1, 317-334, (2009) DOI: 10.3390/v1020317

Viroids, due to their small size and lack of protein-coding capacity, must rely essentially on their hosts for replication. Intriguingly, viroids have evolved the ability to replicate in two cellular organella, the nucleus (family Pospiviroidae) and the chloroplast (family Avsunviroidae). Viroid replication proceeds through an RNA-based rolling-circle mechanism with three steps that, with some variations, operate in both polarity strands: i) synthesis of longer-than-unit strands catalyzed by either the nuclear RNA polymerase II or a nuclear-encoded chloroplastic RNA polymerase, in both instances redirected to transcribe RNA templates, ii) cleavage to unit-length, which in the family Avsunviroidae is mediated by hammerhead ribozymes embedded in both polarity strands, while in the family Pospiviroidae the oligomeric RNAs provide the proper conformation but not the catalytic activity, and iii) circularization. The host RNA polymerases, most likely assisted by additional host proteins, start transcription from specific sites, thus implying the existence of viroid promoters. Cleavage and ligation in the family Pospiviroidae is probably catalyzed by an RNase III-like enzyme and an RNA ligase able to circularize the resulting 5’ and 3’ termini. Whether a chloroplastic RNA ligase mediates circularization in the family Avsunviroidae, or this reaction is autocatalytic, remains an open issue.
Publikation

Dufour, D.; De la Peña, M.; Gago, S.; Flores, R.; Gallego, J.; Structure–function analysis of the ribozymes of chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid: a loop–loop interaction motif conserved in most natural hammerheads Nucleic Acids Res. 37, 368-381, (2009) DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkn918

Loop–loop tertiary interactions play a key role in the folding and catalytic activity of natural hammerhead ribozymes. Using a combination of NMR spectroscopy, site-directed mutagenesis and kinetic and infectivity analyses, we have examined the structure and function of loops 1 and 2 of the (+) and (–) hammerheads of chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid RNA. In both hammerheads, loop 1 is a heptanucleotide hairpin loop containing an exposed U at its 5′ side and an extrahelical U at its 3′-side critical for the catalytic activity of the ribozyme in vitro and for viroid infectivity in vivo , whereas loop 2 has a key opened A at its 3′-side. These structural features promote a specific loop–loop interaction motif across the major groove. The essential features of this tertiary structure element, base pairing between the 5′ U of loop 1 and the 3′ A of loop 2, and interaction of the extrahelical pyrimidine of loop 1 with loop 2, are likely shared by a significant fraction of natural hammerheads.
Publikation

Carbonell, A.; Martínez de Alba, A.-E.; Flores, R.; Gago, S.; Double-stranded RNA interferes in a sequence-specific manner with the infection of representative members of the two viroid families Virology 371, 44-53, (2008) DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2007.09.031

Infection by viroids, non-protein-coding circular RNAs, occurs with the accumulation of 21–24 nt viroid-derived small RNAs (vd-sRNAs) with characteristic properties of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) associated to RNA silencing. The vd-sRNAs most likely derive from dicer-like (DCL) enzymes acting on viroid-specific dsRNA, the key elicitor of RNA silencing, or on the highly structured genomic RNA. Previously, viral dsRNAs delivered mechanically or agroinoculated have been shown to interfere with virus infection in a sequence-specific manner. Here, we report similar results with members of the two families of nuclear- and chloroplast-replicating viroids. Moreover, homologous vd-sRNAs co-delivered mechanically also interfered with one of the viroids examined. The interference was sequence-specific, temperature-dependent and, in some cases, also dependent on the dose of the co-inoculated dsRNA or vd-sRNAs. The sequence-specific nature of these effects suggests the involvement of the RNA induced silencing complex (RISC), which provides sequence specificity to RNA silencing machinery. Therefore, viroid titer in natural infections might be regulated by the concerted action of DCL and RISC. Viroids could have evolved their secondary structure as a compromise between resistance to DCL and RISC, which act preferentially against RNAs with compact and relaxed secondary structures, respectively. In addition, compartmentation, association with proteins or active replication might also help viroids to elude their host RNA silencing machinery.
Bücher und Buchkapitel

Flores, R.; Carbonell, A.; Gago, S.; Martínez de Alba, A.-E.; Delgado, S.; Rodio, M.-E.; Di Serio, F.; Viroid-host interactions: A molecular dialogue between two uneven partners Biology of Plant-Microbe Interactions 6, 1-9, (2008)

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Publikation

Flores, R.; Navarro, B.; Gago, S.; De la Peña, M.; Chrysanthemum Chlorotic Mottle Viroid: a System for Reverse Genetics in the Family Avsunviroidae (Hammerhead Viroids) Plant Viruses 1, 27-32, (2007)

Viroids are small single-stranded circular RNAs able to infect plants. Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle was one of the first viroid diseases reported, but identification and characterization of the causing RNA was delayed by its low accumulation in vivo. Chrysanthemum chlorotic mottle viroid (CChMVd) (398-401 nt) adopts a branched conformation instead of the rod-like secondary structure characteristic of most viroids. The natural sequence variability and the effects of artificial mutants support that the branched conformation is physiologically relevant and additionally stabilized by a kissing-loop interaction critical for RNA in vitro folding and in vivo viability. CChMVd shares structural similarities with peach latent mosaic viroid, with which forms the genus Pelamoviroid within the family Avsunviroidae. CChMVd adopts hammerhead structures that catalyze self-cleavage of the oligomeric strands of both polarities resulting from replication through a symmetric rolling-circle mechanism. The two CChMVd hammerheads display peculiarities: the plus has an extra A close to the central conserved core, and the minus an unsually long helix II. There are non-symptomatic strains (CChMVd-NS) that protect against challenge inoculation with severe strains (CChMVd-S). Introduction by site-directed mutagenesis of one of the CChMVd-NS specific mutations (UUUC?GAAA) is sufficient to change the symptomatic phenotype into non-symptomatic without altering the viroid titer. This pathogenicity determinant maps at a tetraloop of the CChMVd branched conformation. Co-inoculations with typical CChMVd-S and -NS variants showed that the infected plants remain symptomless only when the latter was in more than a 100-fold excess, indicating the higher fitness of the S variant. RNA silencing could mediate the observed cross-protection.
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