title: Virus-induced gene silencing in the culinary ginger (Zingiber officinale): an effective mechanism for down-regulating gene expression in tropical monocots.
abstract: Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) has been shown to be effective for transient knockdown of gene expression in plants to analyze the effects of specific genes in development and stress-related responses. VIGS is well established for studies of model systems and crops within the Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Leguminaceae, and Poaceae, but only recently has been applied to plants residing outside these families. Here, we have demonstrated that barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) can infect two species within the Zingiberaceae, and that BSMV-VIGS can be applied to specifically down-regulate phytoene desaturase in the culinary ginger Zingiber officinale. These results suggest that extension of BSMV-VIGS to monocots other than cereals has the potential for directed genetic analyses of many important temperate and tropical crop species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Renner
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bragg
authors.forename: Heather E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Driscoll
authors.forename: Juliana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Andrew O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Chelsea D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Specht
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015536:Down-Regulation; D020868:Gene Silencing / Q000502:physiology*; D020939:Zingiber officinale / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009029:Mosaic Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D010088:Oxidoreductases; C022398:phytoene dehydrogenase