Nonlinear ribosome migration on cauliflower mosaic virus 35S RNA in transgenic tobacco plants

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) uses a specialised translation mechanism to bypass the long leader sequence of the 35S RNA. The effect of the CaMV 35S RNA leader sequence on the expression of a downstream beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene was studied in transgenic tobacco plants. Enzymatic GUS assays of these transgenic plants show that a shunt mechanism of translation indeed occurs in planta with an average efficiency of 5% compared with the leaderless construct. Histological GUS analyses indicate that the shunt mechanism occurs throughout the whole plant and at all developmental stages.