Imaging the early events of virus infection in plants

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project will investigate the location and redistribution of fluorescent viral RNA immediately following its microinjection into living plant cells. The project will utilise real-time imaging approaches and newly developed FlAsH and ReAsH tags to track viral gene products immediately following their translation. These tagged proteins will be imaged against a transgenic background in which a range of cellular components (e.g. ER, microtubules, plasmodesmata) have been stably highlighted with green fluorescent protein (GFP). The aim is to provide unequivocal evidence for the pathway of viral RNA trafficking in plants during the first stages of infection, and to identify the viral and host factors that interact with the viral genome during transit. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Dr Ilan Davis, Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology, and will utilise real-time deconvolution imaging approaches developed in the Central Optical Imaging Laboratory (COIL), Edinburgh University.