Abstract: Disclosed are nucleic acids encoding fusion polypeptides containing the sequence of a Bamboo mosaic virus coat protein or a segment thereof; and an immunogenic heterologous fragment that is fused to the carrier fragment. Also disclosed are related chimeric bamboo mosaic virus particle, related expression vectors, related host cells, and related compositions. Methods of producing and using the fusion polypeptide or chimeric Bamboo mosaic virus particle are also disclosed.

Abstract: A satellite RNA was found to be naturally associated with bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV-V) isolated from infected Bambusa vulgaris McClure. Nucleotide sequence revealed that this satellite RNA genome contains 836 nucleotides and encodes a 20 kDa protein. Infectious transcripts have been generated from full length cDNA downstream T7 RNA polymerase promoter. Precise replacement of open reading frame (ORF) of cDNA of satellite RNA with sequence encoding bacterial CAT (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) resulted in high level expression of CAT in infected dicotyledon plants, Chenopodium quinoa and tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) in the presence of baMV genomic RNA. Thus, this satellite system is potentially useful as a satellite-based plant expression vector.