How do plants resist viruses?
My scientist discovered the key protein of "anti-virus hijacking"
Xinhua News Agency, Hefei, October 10th (Reporter Xu Haitao) The virus must "hijack" and use the life system of healthy cells invaded in order to reproduce and spread.
Recently, the team of Professor Zhong Zhao from the University of Science and Technology of China, based on 8 years of research, discovered the key protein WUSCHEL (WUS) that prevents the virus from "hijacking" plant cells, and then revealed the broad-spectrum antiviral mechanism of plant stem cells, in order to solve the problem of crop antiviral and even Issues such as stable global food production have opened up new paths.
The international authoritative academic journal "Science" published the results on October 9.
Viruses are the second largest disease in agricultural production after fungi.
For example, the virus transmitted by the rice planthopper can cause rice stripe blight and black-streak dwarf disease.
At present, there are more than 1,000 plant viruses known, but the existing antiviral methods of human beings are only effective against a few viruses, and the resistance of plants will weaken as the viruses evolve.
"Stem tip detoxification" is a rare effective biotechnology, but its deep scientific mechanism has not been proven.
The Zhao Zhong team of the University of Science and Technology of China took the "stem tip detoxification" as the inspiration source, and through 8 years of cross-study of developmental biology and plant virology, recently discovered the key antiviral protein WUS in plant stem cells.
"Virus is a very simple living body. After it invades healthy cells, it must rely on'hijacking' the life system in the cell, including protein synthesis and various energy substances, to serve itself." Zhao Zhong said that their research found that WUS Protein can inhibit the protein synthesis system of plant stem cells, so that the invading virus cannot synthesize protein, and thus cannot reproduce and spread.
They further researched and found that the WUS protein can also be a "weapon" for other types of cells to resist viruses, and can also inhibit the infection of a variety of viruses. It has a broad spectrum and is effective against a variety of plant diseases.
"This research solves a long-standing and concerned problem, and is a groundbreaking research in the field of plant pathology and development." The reviewer commented on the journal Science.
It is understood that the research team plans to apply the results to breeding, screening high disease-resistant proteins based on protein artificial evolution technology, in order to obtain broad-spectrum and high disease-resistant new crop varieties.
"We hope to apply the results to more food crops, oil crops, medicinal crops, etc., so that most crops can resist virus invasion." Zhao Zhong said.