Beet necrotic yellow vein virus particles localize to mitochondria during infection

Fluorescent beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) particles were produced by replacing part of the readthrough domain of the minor coat protein P75 with the green fluorescent protein (GFP). The recombinant virus was functio nal in plants and P76-GFP was incorporated at one end of the rod-shaped vir ions. Laser scanning confocal microscopy and transmission electron microsco py showed that virus-like particles, almost certainly authentic BNYVV virio ns, localized to the cytoplasmic surface of mitochondria at early times pos tinfection but relocated at later times to semiordered clusters in the cyto plasm, This is the first report of specific targeting of plant virus partic les to the mitochondria in vivo. (C) 2001 Academic Press.