Development and application of an efficient virus-induced gene silencing system in Nicotiana tabacum using geminivirus alphasatellite.

ABSTRACT: Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a recently developed technique for characterizing the function of plant genes by gene transcript suppression and is increasingly used to generate transient loss-of-function assays. Here we report that the 2mDNA1, a geminivirus satellite vector, can induce efficient gene silencing in Nicotiana tabacum with Tobacco curly shoot virus. We have successfully silenced the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene in GUS transgenic N. tabacum plants and the sulphur desaturase (Su) gene in five different N. tabacum cultivars. These pronounced and severe silencing phenotypes are persistent and ubiquitous. Once initiated in seedlings, the silencing phenotype lasted for the entire life span of the plants and silencing could be induced in a variety of tissues and organs includin

SUBMITTER: Huang CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3030953 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature