To mutagenize two conserved CCCT and PTK motifs in the central domain of Chinese strain of potato Y potyvirus (PVY-C) helper component proteinase (HC-Pro), four mutants of HC-Pro gene were obtained by PCR and site-directed mutagenesis, and then were inserted into the constitutive expression vector pBin438. Leaves from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. K326) were transformed with these four plant expression plasmids by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, respectively. Southern and Western blotting analyses showed that these four mutants were integrated into tobacco genomic DNA and could express the corresponding proteins in most of die transgenic plants. The challenge of transgenic plants with potato X potexvirus (PVX) revealed that the expression products of PVY-C HC-Pro mutants in transgenic plants greatly abolished functions of HC-Pro in enhancing the accumulation and pathogenicity of PVX, indicating that CCCT and PTK motifs of HC-Pro were required for PVX/PVY synergism. Meanwhile, the results demonstrated that PVY-C HC-Pro had a function in accelerating the long-distance movement of PVX in these transgenic plants for the first time.
