Analysis of the time course of establishment of systemic gene silencing by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing constructs in wheat.

Authors: GARG, ANSHU - Australian National University; Brandt, Amanda; Scofield, Steven - Steve

Submitted to: International Journal of Plant Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/7/2024
Publication Date: 2/14/2024
Citation: Garg, A., Brandt, A.S., Scofield, S.R. 2024. Analysis of the time course of the establishment of systemic gene silencing by barley stripe mosaic virus-induced gene silencing constructs in wheat. International Journal of Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb15010011.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb15010011

Interpretive Summary: Geneticists routinely determine the function of genes by examining the change in a plant’s characteristics after a mutation has inactivated the gene. This conventional genetic approach is rarely possible in wheat because it is hexaploid, meaning that it contains 6-copies of each chromosome, and obtaining plants in which all 6-gene copies are mutant is not easily achieved. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a technique that allows scientists to down-regulate gene expression based only on the sequence of the gene. This report provides important information to scientists wishing to utilize VIGS. In this study the rate at which gene silencing spreads throughout wheat plants during VIGS was determined. This provides critical information to any wheat researchers that employ VIGS in their studies.

Technical Abstract: Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) has been adapted to be a very useful system virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in wheat and other cereals. To design optimal VIGS experiments it is critical to know the rate at which silencing spreads systemically from the site of infection. This study reports a time course analysis of the movement of BSMV-VIGS from the site of infection into systemic leaves of wheat plants. It also describes how the photobleaching phenotype resulting from silencing phytoene desaturase (PDS), which is often used as a reporter for VIGS, is temporally delayed from gene silencing and, therefore, does not provide an accurate indication of where VIGS is occurring.