Studies toward the understanding of the cucumber necrosis virus uncoating process

植物病毒在世界各地的多种作物中引起疾病，导致作物质量和数量下降。在加拿大，病毒是导致几种作物严重疾病的罪魁祸首，包括马铃薯、小麦、许多温室作物、葡萄、核果等。目前的病毒疾病控制方法往往不足以消除病毒疾病，而且，病毒往往可以通过突变克服现有的控制方法。因此，需要新的病毒疾病控制战略来补充和加强目前的战略。植物病毒的繁殖和传播完全依赖于植物寄主细胞，而且，病毒必须以一种非常特殊的方式与细胞的成分相互作用。最近关于病毒/宿主相互作用的研究已经确定了一些必需的宿主成分，在某些情况下，已经表明，去除或改变这些成分即使不能消除，也会降低病毒的繁殖能力。因此，增加对病毒/宿主相互作用这一领域的了解应有助于设计未来控制病毒感染的新策略。植物病毒颗粒由被保护膜包围的基因组组成，必须能够从保护膜上释放基因组，才能开始感染过程。尽管病毒脱包衣在感染的建立和维持中很重要，但对于脱包衣是如何发生的，在细胞中发生的位置，或者需要哪些特定的宿主成分，我们知之甚少。这一建议的目的是增加我们对病毒脱膜过程的了解。预计这些知识将有助于设计未来病毒疾病管理的新策略。

Plant viruses cause disease in a variety of crops worldwide resulting in decreased crop quality and quantity. In Canada, viruses are responsible for serious diseases in several crops, including potato, wheat, many greenhouse crops, grapes, stone fruits, and others. Current methods for virus disease control are often not sufficiently robust to eliminate virus disease and, moreover, viruses can often overcome existing control methods via mutation.  Thus, new virus disease control strategies are required to complement and strengthen current strategies. Plant viruses are absolutely dependent on plant host cells for their multiplication and spread, and moreover, viruses must interact with components of the cell in a very specific way. Recent research on virus/host interactions has identified some of the required host components, and in some cases, it has been shown that removal or alteration of these components can decrease, if not eliminate, the ability of the virus to multiply. Thus, increasing knowledge in this area of virus/host interactions should assist in the design of new strategies for future control of virus infection. Plant virus particles, which consist of a genome that is surrounded by a protective coat, must be able to release the genome from the coat in order to begin the infection process.  Despite the importance of virus uncoating in the establishment and maintenance of infection, little is known about how uncoating occurs, where in the cell it occurs, or what specific host components are required.  The aim of this proposal is increase our knowledge of the virus uncoating process.  It is anticipated that this knowledge will contribute to the design of new strategies for future virus disease management.