Study of interaction between Papaya ringspot virus coat protein and infected Carica papaya proteins

Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) causes the Papaya ringspot disease. Virus-host interactions appear to play a significant role in the replication, pathogenesis, and infection caused by the PRSV. PRSV coat protein is likely to be involved in the processes of RNA replication, aphid transmission, and cell-to-cell movement, which is closely related to the host cell proteins resulting in a PRSV infection. To identify the host proteins that interact with the CP in vitro, immune precipitation, in-solution trypsin digestion, and LC-MS/MS were performed. Twenty-three identified proteins that interacted with the CP are involved in cellular metabolism, transcription, signal, translation, carbohydrate metabolism, protein metabolism, stress response, photosynthesis, nucleotide metabolism, respiration, and lipid metabolism processes. The search tool for interactions of chemicals (STITCH) results show that SWP (an RNA polymerase II transcription mediator) and MPPBETA (Mitochondrial processing peptidase) are involved in known plant defense mechanisms including transcription factors, cell division, hormones, stress, mitochondrial electron transferase, respiration, and proteasome. Therefore, analyzing virus-host protein interactions at a molecular level is important to build a better understanding of the virus replication mechanism and cellular responses mounted against viruses by the host defense system.