Acts as suppressor of RNA-mediated gene silencing, also known as post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), a mechanism of plant viral defense that limits the accumulation of viral RNAs. May directly interfere with the mobile silencing signal. Belongs to the cucumovirus/ilarvirus protein 2b family. A paper showing a role as suppressor of RNA-mediated gene silencing has been retracted because of duplications in figures 5B and 6I of this paper.