Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), which plays a pivotal role in initiating translation in eukaryotic organisms, is often hijacked by the viral genome-linked protein to facilitate the infection of potyviruses. In this study, we found that the naturally occurring amino acid substitution D71G in eIF4E is widely present in potyvirus-resistant watermelon accessions and disrupts the interaction between watermelon eIF4E and viral genome-linked protein of papaya ringspot virus-watermelon strain, zucchini yellow mosaic virus or watermelon mosaic virus. Multiple sequence alignment and protein modelling showed that the amino acid residue D⁷¹ located in the cap-binding pocket of eIF4E is strictly conserved in many plant species. The mutation D71G in watermelon eIF4E conferred resistance against papaya ringspot virus-watermelon strain and zucchini yellow mosaic virus, and the equivalent mutation D55G in tobacco eIF4E conferred resistance to potato virus Y. Therefore, our finding provides a potential precise target for breeding plants resistant to multiple potyviruses.

中文翻译：

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eIF4E 中保守氨基酸的天然取代赋予对多种马铃薯病毒属的抗性

真核翻译起始因子4E（eIF4E）在真核生物的翻译启动中发挥着关键作用，经常被病毒基因组相关蛋白劫持以促进马铃薯Y病毒组的感染。在这项研究中，我们发现eIF4E中天然存在的氨基酸取代D71G广泛存在于抗马铃薯Y病毒属西瓜品种中，并破坏了西瓜eIF4E与番木瓜环斑病毒-西瓜株、西葫芦黄花叶病毒的病毒基因组连锁蛋白之间的相互作用或西瓜花叶病毒。多重序列比对和蛋白质建模表明，位于 eIF4E 帽结合口袋中的氨基酸残基 D ^{71在许多植物物种中是严格保守的。}西瓜 eIF4E 中的突变 D71G 赋予对木瓜环斑病毒西瓜品系和西葫芦黄花叶病毒的抗性，而烟草 eIF4E 中的等效突变 D55G 赋予对马铃薯 Y 病毒的抗性。因此，我们的发现为育种抗性植物提供了潜在的精确靶标。多种马铃薯病毒。