Heterologous expression and processing of the flavescence doree phytoplasma variable membrane protein VmpA in Spiroplasma citri.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Flavescence dorée (FD) of grapevine is a phloem bacterial disease that threatens European vineyards. The disease is associated with a non-cultivable mollicute, a phytoplasma that is transmitted by the grapevine leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus in a persistent, propagative manner. The specificity of insect transmission is presumably mediated through interactions between the host tissues and phytoplasma surface proteins comprising the so-called variable membrane proteins (Vmps). Plant spiroplasmas and phytoplasmas share the same ecological niches, the phloem sieve elements of host plants and the hemocoel of insect vectors. Unlike phytoplasmas, however, spiroplasmas, and Spiroplasma citri in particular, can be grown in cell-free media and genetically engineered. As a new appr

SUBMITTER: Renaudin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4392738 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature