2. Academic Validation
  3. Rational design of phytovirucide inhibiting nucleocapsid protein aggregation in tomato spotted wilt virus

Rational design of phytovirucide inhibiting nucleocapsid protein aggregation in tomato spotted wilt virus

  • Nat Commun. 2025 Feb 27;16(1):2034. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-57281-z.
Ningning Zan 1,  Jiao Li 1,  Jiahui Yao 1,  Shang Wu 1,  Jianzhuan Li 1,  Feifei Chen 1,  Baoan Song 2,  Runjiang Song 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University, Guiyang, PR China.
  • 2 State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University, Guiyang, PR China. basong@gzu.edu.cn.
  • 3 State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Center for R&D of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University, Guiyang, PR China. songrj@gzu.edu.cn.
PMID: 40016246 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57281-z
Abstract

Ineffectiveness of managing plant viruses by chemicals has posed serious challenges in crop production. Recently, phase separation has shown to play a key role in viral lifecycle. Using inhibitors that can disturb biomolecular condensates formed by phase separation for virus control has been reported in medical field. However, the applicability of this promising Antiviral tactic for plant protection has not been explored. Here, we report an inhibitor, Z9, that targets the tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) N protein. Z9 is capable of interacting with the Amino acids in the nucleic acid binding region of TSWV N, disrupting the assembly of N and RNA into phase-separated condensates, the reduction of which is detrimental to the stability of the N protein. This study provides a strategy for phase separation-based plant virus control.

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