Current Research

• Involvement of nuclear domains and proteins in plant responses to virus infections and environmental cues.
  The nucleolus and Cajal bodies (CBs) are prominent sub-nuclear domains involved in a number of crucial aspects of cell function. Certain viruses interact with these compartments but the functions of such interactions are largely uncharacterized. We have recently shown that the ability of the umbravirus ORF3 protein to move viral RNA long distances through the phloem strictly depends on its interaction with CBs, the nucleolus and the nucleolar protein, fibrillarin. The ORF3 protein targets and re-organizes CBs and then enters the nucleolus by causing fusion of these structures with the nucleolus. This process is mediated by the interaction between the ORF3 protein and a major nucleolar protein, fibrillarin. We provide a model whereby the ORF3 protein utilises trafficking pathways between CBs and the nucleolus, and recruits fibrillarin for the formation of viral cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein particles capable of long-distance movement and systemic infection. We have also shown that other viruses can interact with the nucleolus, CBs and fibrillarin as well. Our recent results demonstrate that fibrillarin is involved in the systemic movement of plant virus proteins and RNAs that regulate the development of virus disease suggesting a role of fibrillarin in macromolecular trafficking in the phloem, and is up-regulated in the phloem by abiotic stresses, suggesting a role in the signal transduction mechanism in response to environmental cues.
• Plant caspase-like proteases as functional analogues of animal caspases. The role in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses
  Programmed cell death (PCD) is a fundamentally important process that regulates growth, development and responses to pathogen attack and abiotic stresses. Caspases (cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinases) have been shown to play a critical role in animal PCD. However, no direct homologues of animal caspase genes have been identified in plants. Recently in collaboration with the Moscow State University team (Prof. A. Vartapetian), we have found this missing link in plant PCD and identified plant proteins with caspase-like protease activity which are a functional analogue of animal caspase. This protein has been purified from plants, identified as putative subtilisin-like proteases and named phytaspase (plant aspartate specific protease). We provide evidence that phytaspase is essential for PCD-related responses to biotic (virus attack) and abiotic (environmental) stresses. We suggest a model whereby after translation, phytaspase is activated and secreted into the apoplast in which it may be sequestered before PCD and/or fulfils a guarding function. In response to a variety of biotic or abiotic stresses, phytaspase is re-localised from the apoplast to inside the cell where it functions as executioner of PCD.
• Plant-produced vaccines (PLAPROVA). This new EU-FP7 project has just began at SCRI. The €4 million project consortium comprises seven key research teams in six EU countries, four teams in Russia and one team in South Africa. The PLAPROVA consortium will exploit transient expression systems recently developed by the partners that can produce amounts of protein suitable for testing within weeks, rather than in months. This means that large-scale screening for candidate vaccines is now within reach, allowing products for which there is no conventional counterpart to be produced. Initially, the consortium will concentrate on diseases of importance to farming in both the EU and Russia, which includes Avian influenza, blue tongue, foot and mouth disease and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. Proteins identified through this screening programme will be developed for large-scale production and ultimately low-cost production of effective vaccines. Lead partner at SCRI is Prof. Michael Taliansky.
• Development of diagnostic tools and vaccines to control sheep scab (DEFRA funded project)
  Sheep scab seriously affects the welfare of sheep and is a widespread problem in the UK. A new grant has been awarded by Moredun Research Institute to develop novel strategies to control sheep scab using immunological approaches and the development of diagnostic tools. The SCRI team led by Prof. Taliansky has joined MRI as a sub-contractor to ensure the sufficient generation of recombinant proteins which will be generated in plants, for both diagnostic and vaccine purposes.
• Abundance and diversity of soil virus populations as a potential factor in microbial mortality and gene transfer within microbial communities. Effect of environmental change. Soil viruses are of great importance as they may influence the ecology of soil biological communities through both an ability to transfer genes from host to host and as a potential cause of microbial mortality. Despite this importance the area of soil virology is understudied. To explore role of the viruses in plant health and soil quality, we are studying virus diversity and abundance in different geographic  areas  (ecosystems) using classical methods of virus purification, electron microscopy and next generation sequencing (metagenomic studies).
• Probing biomolecular complexes with atomic force microscopy. Structure of virus particles (closteroviruses, potyviruses).
  We have developed and successfully exploited AFM techniques to analyse molecular architecture of novel transport devices (particle tails) of closteroviruses and potyviruses and to measure forces between viral RNA and protein molecules at the single-molecule level. This interdisciplinary work provides a physical basis for understanding the mechanisms of virus movement in infected plants.

Research History

• After reading Biology at Moscow State University (MSU), I carried out my PhD in the Department of Virology of the MSU. My thesis concerned RNA–protein and protein–protein interactions during assembly of plant viruses.
• In 1975 I was employed as research scientist in the A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology of the MSU, where I continued studies on plant molecular virology. In the early eighties we independently formulated a novel concept of active intercellular virus movement that had exerted significant influence on the further development of plant virology and plant cell biology.
• In 1987 I became head of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology at the MSU focusing my basic research on plant-virus interactions and also participating in programme on diagnostics for plant viruses.
• In 1994 I moved to SCRI, where I have initiated research on molecular biology of umbraviruses that consequently were proven to be an excellent experimental system for studies in molecular and cell virology.
• 1994. Russian State Prize in Science and Technology (the highest national scientific award in Russia)
• 2001 - present. Adjunct Professor in Biochemistry, Immunology, Molecular and Cellular Biology at Moscow State University.
• 2003 -2007. Editorial Board for Journal of General Virology.
• 2003 – present. UK Research Councils' Individual Merit Promotion to Band IMP3 (Senior Principal Scientist). 
• 2008 - present. Visiting Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh.
• 2010 - present. Associate Editor for Journal of Plant Pathology

Recent Publications

• Vartapetian, A.B., Chichkova, N.V., Taliansky M. and Wolpert, T. 2011. A plant alternative to animal caspases: subtilisin-like proteases. Cell Death and Differentiation (in press).
• Rakitina, D., Brown J.W.S., Taliansky M. and Kalinina N.O. 2011. Two RNA binding sites in plant fibrillarin provide non-specific interactions with various RNA substrates. Nucleic Acids Research (in press).
• Taliansky, M., Brown, J.W.S., Rajamaki, M.L., Valkonen, J.P.T. and Kalinina, N.O. 2010. Involvement of the plant nucleolus in virus and viroid infections:parallels with animal pathosystems. Advances in Virus Research 77, 119-158.
• Chichkova, N.V., Shaw, J., Galiulina, R.A., Drury, G.E., Tuzhikov, A.I., Kim, S.H., Kalkum, M., Hong, T.B., Gorshkova, E.N., Torrance, L., Vartapetian, A.B. and Taliansky, M. 2010. Phytaspase, a relocalisable cell death promoting plant protease with caspase activity. EMBO Journal 29, 1149-1161.
• Makarov, V.V., Obraztsova, E.A., Solovyev, A.G., Morozov, S.Yu., Taliansky M.E., Yaminsky, I.V., and Kalinina, N.O. 2010. Internal domain of hordeivirus movement protein TGBp1 forms filamentous structures. Biochemistry 75, 752-758. 
• Stark, L.A., and Taliansky, M. 2009. Old and new faces of the nucleolus. EMBO Reports 10, 35-40.
• Swanson, M.M., Fraser, G., Daniell, T.J., Torrance, L., Gregory, P.J., and Taliansky, M. 2009. Viruses in soils: morphological diversity and abundance in the rhizosphere. Annals of Applied Biology 155, 51-60.
• Chichkova, N.V., Galiulina, R.A., Taliansky, M. and Vartapetian, A.B. 2008. Tissue disruption activates a plant caspase-like protease with TATD cleavage specificity. Plant Stress 2, 89-95.
• Makarov, V.V., Rybakova, E.N., Efimov, A.V., Dobrov, E.N., Serebryakova M.V., Solovyev A.G., Yaminsky, I.V., Taliansky, M., Morozov, S.Yu. and Kalinina N.O. 2009. Domain organization of the N-terminal portion of hordeivirus movement protein TGBp1. Journal of General Virology 90, 3022-3032.
• Canetta, E.,  Kim, S.H., Kalinina, N.O., Shaw, J., Adya, A.K.,  Gillespie, T., Brown, J.W.S. and Taliansky, M.  2008. A plant virus movement protein forms ring-like complexes with the major nucleolar protein, fibrillarin, in vitro. Journal of Molecular Biology 376, 932-937.
• Gabrenaite-Verkhovskaya, R., Andreev, I. A., Kalinina, N.O., Torrance, L., Taliansky, M.E. and Mäkinen, K. 2008. The cylindrical inclusion protein of potato virus A is associated with a subpopulation of particles isolated from infected plants. Journal of General Virology 89, 829-838.
• Kim, S.H., MacFarlane, S., Kalinina, N.O., Rakitina, D.V., Ryabov, E.V., Gillespie, T., Haupt, S., Brown, J.W.S. and Taliansky, M. 2007. Interaction between a plant virus-encoded protein and the major nucleolar protein, fibrillarin, is required for virus systemic infection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104, 11115-11120.
• Kim, S.H., Ryabov, E., Kalinina, N.O., Rakitina, D., Gillespie, T., MacFarlane, S., Haupt, S., Brown, J.W.S., and Taliansky, M. 2007. Cajal bodies and the nucleolus are required for a plant virus systemic infection. EMBO Journal 26, 2169-2179.
• Reavy, B., Bagirova, S., Chichkova, N.V., Fedoseeva, S.V., Kim, S.H., Vartapetian, A.B. and Taliansky, M.E. 2007. Caspase-resistant VirD2 protein provides enhanced gene delivery and expression in plants. Plant Cell Reports 26, 1215-1219.
• Torrance, L., Andreev, I.A., Gabrenaite-Verhovskaya, R., Cowan, G., Mäkinen, K.,  Taliansky, M.E. 2006. An unusual structure at one end of potato potyvirus particles. Journal of Molecular Biology 357, 1-8.
• Haupt, S.,  Stroganova, T.,  Ryabov, E., Kim, S. H., Fraser, G.,  Duncan, G.,  Mayo,  M.A., Barker, H. and Taliansky, M. 2005. Nucleolar localisation of Potato leafroll virus capsid proteins. Journal of General Virology 86, 2891-2896.
• Andreev, I., Kim, S.H., Kalinina, N.O., Fitzgerald, A.G., Palukaitis, P. and Taliansky, M.E. 2004. Molecular Interactions between plant virus movement protein and RNA: Force Spectroscopy Investigations.  Journal of Molecular Biology 339, 1041-1047.
• Ryabov,  E.V., Kim, S.H. and Taliansky M. 2004. Identification of nuclear localisation signal and nuclear export signal of the umbraviral long-distance RNA movement protein. Journal of General  Virology 85, 1329-1333.
• Kim, S.H., Ryabov, E.V., Brown, J.W.S. and Taliansky, M. 2004. Involvement of the nucleolus in plant virus systemic infection. Biochemical Society Transactions 32, 557-560.
• Kim, S.H., Kalinina, N.O Andreev, I., Ryabov, E.V., Fitzgerald, A.G., Taliansky, M. and Palukaitis P. 2004. The C-terminal 33 amino acids of the cucumber mosaic virus 3a protein affect virus movement, RNA binding and inhibition of infection and translation. Journal of General  Virology 85, 221-230.
• Chichkova, N.V., Kim, S.H., Titova, E.S., Kalkum, M., Morozov, V.S., Rubtsov, Yu.P., Kalinina, N.O., Taliansky M. and  Vartapetyan, A. 2004. A plant caspase-like protease activated during the hypersensitive response. Plant Cell 16, 157-171.
• Peremyslov, V., Andreev, I., Prokhnevsky, A., Duncan, G. H., Taliansky, M. E. and Dolja, V. V. 2004. Complex molecular architecture of beet yellows virus particles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 101, 5030-5035.
• Taliansky, M., Kim, S.H., Mayo, M.A., Kalinina, N.O., Fraser, G., McGeachy, K.D., and Barker, H. 2004. Escape of a plant virus from amplicon-mediated RNA silencing is associated with biotic or abiotic stress. Plant Journal 39, 194-205.
• Taliansky, M., Mayo, M.A., and Barker, H. 2003. Potato leafroll virus: a classic pathogen shows some new tricks. Molecular Plant Pathology 4, 81-89.
• Taliansky, M.E. and Robinson, D.J. 2003. Molecular biology of umbraviruses: phantom warriors. Journal of General Virology 84, 1951-1960.
• Taliansky, M., Roberts, I.M., Kalinina, N., Ryabov, E.V., Raj, S.K., Robinson, D.J., and Oparka, K.J. 2003. An umbraviral protein, involved in long-distance RNA movement, binds viral RNA and forms unique, protective ribonucleoprotein complexes. Journal of Virology 77, 3031-3040.

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Attachment	Size
Caspase-resistant VirD2 protein provides enhanced gene delivery and expression in plants	409.12 KB
Viruses in Soil	494.3 KB
Virus-like particles from Antarctic dry valley soil	915.72 KB
A plant virus movement protein forms ringlike complexes with the major nucleolar protein Fibrillarin in vitro	229.91 KB