Virus-Induced Gene Silencing as a Scalable Tool to Study Drought Tolerance in Plants
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Author / Producer
Date
2015
Publication Type
Book Chapter
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Here we describe the methodology of using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) as a powerful and scalable tool to screen the function of genes that participate in adaptation to drought. Silencing of endogenous gene expression in Nicotiana benthamiana is achieved by systemic infection of the aerial parts of the plant with a virus engineered to contain homologous fragments of the target gene(s) of interest. Silenced plant material can be consistently produced with little optimization in less than 1 month without specialized equipment, using only simple cloning and transformation techniques. Although maximal silencing is localized to only a few leaves, when whole plants are subjected to water stress, the tissue from these silenced leaves can be characterized for physiological, biochemical, and transcriptional responses to determine the role of the candidate genes in drought tolerance.
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Publication status
published
Book title
Plant Gene Silencing
Journal / series
Volume
1287
Pages / Article No.
243 - 253
Publisher
Humana Press
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
Virus-induced gene silencing; Drought response/s; Reverse genetics