Expression of tombusvirus open reading frames 1 and 2 is sufficient for the replication of defective interfering, but not satellite, RNA.

Yeast cells co-expressing the replication proteins p36 and p95 of Carnation Italian ringspot virus (CIRV) support the RNA-dependent replication of several defective interfering (DI) RNAs derived from either the genome of CIRV or the related Cymbidium ringspot virus (CymRSV), but not the replication of a satellite RNA (sat RNA) originally associated with CymRSV. DI, but not sat RNA, was replicated in yeast cells co-expressing both DI and sat RNA. Using transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants constitutively expressing CymRSV replicase proteins (p33 and p92), or transiently expressing either these proteins or CIRV p36 and p95, it was shown that expression of replicase proteins alone was also not sufficient for the replication of sat RNA in plant cells. However, it was also shown that replicating CIRV genomic RNA deletion mutants encoding only replicase proteins could sustain replication of sat RNA in plant cells. These results suggest that sat RNA has a replication strategy differing from that of genomic and DI RNAs, for it requires the presence of a cis-replicating genome acting as a trans-replication enhancer.