Potyviral Genome-Linked Protein and its Interaction with Plant Defense Ribosome Inactivating Protein from Phytolacca Americana

Agriculture is an indispensable part of every person’s life, ensuring that nutritious and inexpensive food is readily available. Agriculture continues to be confronted with epidemics, having devastating effects on economies and the plant sources essential for human and animal life. Plants and their pathogens have developed evolutionary adaptations, each shaping the other’s defence and invasive strategies. Many different plants produce toxic ribosome inactivating proteins that aid in their defence mechanisms against pathogenic invaders. Viruses must adapt to the host translational machinery, several having evolved to include viral genome-linked proteins that carry numerous viral functions. Here, we review how a potyviral protein from turnip mosaic virus linked to its genome is able to inhibit pokeweed plant defence protein, and perhaps potentially conferring viral resistance to the toxin.