Panicovirus accumulation is governed by two membrane-associated proteins with a newly identified conserved motif that contributes to pathogenicity

Panicum mosaic virus (PMV) has a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome that serves as the mRNA for two 5'-proximal genes, p48 and p112. The p112 open reading frame (ORF) has a GDD-motif, a feature of virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerases. Replication assays in protoplasts showed that p48 and p112 are sufficient for replication of PMV and its satellite virus (SPMV). Differential centrifugation of extracts from PMV-infected plants showed that the p48 and p112 proteins are membrane-associated. The same fractions exhibited RNA polymerase activity in vitro on viral RNA templates, suggesting that p48 and p112 represent the viral replication proteins. Moreover, we identified a domain spanning amino acids 306 to 405 on the p48 and p112 PMV ORFs that is common to the Tombusviridae. Alanine scanning mutagenesis of the conserved domain (CD) revealed that several substitutions were lethal or severely debilitated PMV accumulation. Other substitutions did not affect RNA accumulation, yet they caused variable phenotypes suggestive of plant-dependent effects on systemic invasion and symptom induction. The mutants that were most debilitating to PMV replication were hydrophobic amino acids that we hypothesize are important for membrane localization and functional replicase activity.