Abstract
Several VIGS protocols have been established for high-throughput functional genomic screens as it bypasses the time-consuming and laborious process of generation of transgenic plants. The silencing efficiency in this approach is largely hindered by a technically demanding step in which the first pair of newly emerged true leaves at the 2-week-old stage are infiltrated with a needleless syringe. To further optimize VIGS efficiency and achieve rapid inoculation for a large-scale functional genomic study, here we describe a protocol of an efficient VIGS assay in Arabidopsis using Agrobacterium-mediated rubbing infection. The Agrobacterium inoculation is performed by simply rubbing the leaves with Filter Agent Celite® 545. The highly efficient and uniform silencing effect was indicated by the development of a visibly albino phenotype due to silencing of the Cloroplastos alterados 1 (CLA1) gene in the newly emerged leaves. In addition, the albino phenotype could be observed in stems and flowers, indicating its potential application for gene functional studies in the late vegetative development and flowering stages.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baulcombe D (2004) RNA silencing in plants. Nature 431:356–363
Burch-Smith TM, Anderson JC, Martin GB et al (2004) Applications and advantages of virus-induced gene silencing for gene function studies in plants. Plant J 39:734–746
Becker A, Lange M (2010) VIGS–genomics goes functional. Trends Plant Sci 15:1–4
Brigneti G, Martin-Hernandez AM, Jin H et al (2004) Virus-induced gene silencing in Solanum species. Plant J 39:264–272
Waterhouse PM, Helliwell CA (2003) Exploring plant genomes by RNA-induced gene silencing. Nat Rev Genet 4:29–38
Burch-Smith TM, Schiff M, Liu Y et al (2006) Efficient virus-induced gene silencing in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 142:21–27
Robertson D (2004) VIGS vectors for gene silencing: many targets, many tools. Annu Rev Plant Biol 55:495–519
Vaghchhipawala Z, Rojas CM, Senthil-Kumar M et al (2011) Agroinoculation and agroinfiltration: simple tools for complex gene function analyses. Methods Mol Biol 678:65–76
Ryu CM, Anand A, Kang L et al (2004) Agrodrench: a novel and effective agroinoculation method for virus-induced gene silencing in roots and diverse Solanaceous species. Plant J 40:322–331
Mandel MA, Feldmann KA, Herrera-Estrella L et al (1996) CLA1, a novel gene required for chloroplast development, is highly conserved in evolution. Plant J 9:649–658
Gao X, Britt RC Jr, Shan L et al (2011) Agrobacterium-mediated virus-induced gene silencing assay in cotton. J Vis Exp 54:e2938
Gao X, Wheeler T, Li Z et al (2011) Silencing GhNDR1 and GhMKK2 compromises cotton resistance to Verticillium wilt. Plant J 66:293–305
Acknowledgment
We thank the support from USDA NIFA (2012-67013-19433), the Robert A. Welch Foundation (A-1795) to L. S., and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development-Brazil (CNPq) to A. M.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Manhães, A.M.E.d.A., de Oliveira, M.V.V., Shan, L. (2015). Establishment of an Efficient Virus-Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) Assay in Arabidopsis by Agrobacterium-Mediated Rubbing Infection. In: Mysore, K., Senthil-Kumar, M. (eds) Plant Gene Silencing. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1287. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2453-0_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2453-0_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2452-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2453-0
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols