A Core35S Promoter of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus Drives More Efficient Replication of Turnip Crinkle Virus

The 35S promoter with a duplicated enhancer (frequently referred to as 2X35S) is a strong dicotyledonous plant-specific promoter commonly used in generating transgenic plants to enable high-level expression of genes of interest. It is also used to drive the initiation of RNA virus replication from viral cDNA, with the consensus understanding that high levels of viral RNA production powered by 2X35S permit a more efficient initiation of virus replication. Here, we showed that the exact opposite is true. We found that, compared to the Core35S promoter, the 2X35S promoter-driven initiation of turnip crinkle virus (TCV) infection was delayed by at least 24 h. We first compared three versions of 35S promoter, namely 2X35S, 1X35S, and Core35S, for their ability to power the expression of a non-replicating green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene, and confirmed that 2X35S and Core35S correlated with the highest and lowest GFP expression, respectively. However, when inserted upstream of TCV cDNA, 2X35S-driven replication was not detected until 72 h post-inoculation (72 hpi) in inoculated leaves. By contrast, Core35S-driven replication was detected earlier at 48 hpi. A similar delay was also observed in systemically infected leaves (six versus four days post-inoculation). Combining our results, we hypothesized that the stronger 2X35S promoter might enable a higher accumulation of a TCV protein that became a repressor of TCV replication at higher cellular concentration. Extending from these results, we propose that the Core35S (or mini35S) promoter is likely a better choice for generating infectious cDNA clones of TCV.

Automated summary

Contrary to popular belief, the 2X35S promoter actually delayed the initiation of turnip crinkle virus (TCV) infection compared to the Core35S promoter. This suggests that the Core35S (or mini35S) promoter may be a better choice for generating infectious cDNA clones of TCV, as the stronger 2X35S promoter may lead to higher accumulation of a TCV protein that inhibits virus replication.