DNA-REPLICATION SPECIFICITY OF TYLCV GEMINIVIRUS IS MEDIATED BY THE AMINO-TERMINAL-116 AMINO-ACIDS OF THE REP PROTEIN

Geminiviruses are plant DNA viruses replicating by a rolling circle me chanism, We have investigated the specificity of replication origin re cognition of two different isolates of tomato yellow leaf curl virus ( TYLCV). Here, we show that TYLCV-Sardinian and -Israeli replication pr oteins display a high degree of specificity for their respective origi ns, The DNA sequences recognized are located on the left part of the i ntergenic region whereas the amino-terminal 116 amino acids of the Rep protein determine the specificity of origin recognition.