Movement Protein
In order for a virus to infect a plant, it must be able to move between cells so it can spread throughout the plant. Plant cell walls make this moving/spreading quite difficult and therefore, for this to occur, movement proteins must be present. A movement protein (MP) is a specific virus-encoded protein that is considered to be a general feature of plant genomes. They allow for local and systemic viral spread throughout a plant. MPs were first studied in the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) where it was found that viruses were unable to spread without the presence of a specific protein. In general, the plant viruses first, move within the cell from replication sites to the plasmodesmata (PD). Then, the virus is able to go through the PD and spread to other cells. This process is controlled through MPs. Different MPs use different mechanisms and pathways to regulate this spread of some viruses. Nearly all plants express at least one MP, while some can encode many different MPs which help ...
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