@article{mbs:/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.80454-0, author = "Cañizares, M. Carmen and Taylor, Kathryn M. and Lomonossoff, George P.", title = "Surface-exposed C-terminal amino acids of the small coat protein of Cowpea mosaic virus are required for suppression of silencing", journal= "Journal of General Virology", year = "2004", volume = "85", number = "11", pages = "3431-3435", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.80454-0", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.80454-0", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2099", type = "Journal Article", abstract = "The small (S) coat protein of Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) has been identified previously as a virus-encoded suppressor of post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). Deletions within the C-terminal 24 aa of this protein affect the yield and systemic spread of the virus, suggesting that the C-terminal amino acids of the S protein, which are exposed on the surface of assembled virus particles, may be responsible for the suppressor activity. To investigate this, versions of CPMV RNA-2 with deletions at the C terminus of the S protein were tested for their ability to counteract PTGS in leaf-patch tests. The results showed that the C-terminal 16 aa of the S protein are particularly important for suppressing PTGS and that these amino acids are virus-specific and cannot be substituted by the equivalent sequence from the related virus Bean pod mottle virus.", }