THE 5' UNTRANSLATED REGION FROM PEA SEED-BORNE MOSAIC POTYVIRUS RNA AS A TRANSLATIONAL ENHANCER IN PEA AND TOBACCO PROTOPLASTS

We have exploited the transient expression of foreign genes introduced into plant protoplasts to investigate the effect of the pea seedborne mosaic potyvirus (PSbMV) 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) on the level of gene expression in pea and tobacco protoplasts. The plant viral 5'UTRs were found to increase translation significantly in comparison to a plasmid containing no 5'UTR of viral origin. The enhancement effect of the 5'UTRs of PSbMV and tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) was found to be similar in pea and tobacco protoplasts, indicating a host-independent role of the potyviral 5'UTRs in enhancing gene expression. Translational enhancement of the two potyviral 5'UTRs was similar to that of the 5'UTR of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). This observation makes it attractive to use potyviral 5'UTRs as general translational enhancers in future genetic transformations of plants.