NONLINEAR RIBOSOME MIGRATION ON CAULIFLOWER MOSAIC-VIRUS 35S RNA IN TRANSGENIC TOBACCO PLANTS

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) uses a specialised translation mechani sm to bypass the long leader sequence of the 35S RNA. The effect of th e CaMV 35S RNA leader sequence on the expression of a downstream beta- glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene was studied in transgenic tobacco pl ants. Enzymatic GUS assays of these transgenic plants show that a shun t mechanism of translation indeed occurs in planta with an average eff iciency of 5% compared with the leaderless construct. Histological GUS analyses indicate that the shunt mechanism occurs throughout the whol e plant and at all developmental stages. (C) 1998 Academic Press.