Virus induced gene silencing for functional genomics in plants

Abstract This chapter reviews the progresses in application of virus induced gene silencing to improve plants. At first, a brief introduction on generation of double-stranded RNAs and role of RNA silencing is provided, with a role on the processing enzymes, Dicer in cleavage of dsRNAs and of Argonaute in the RISC complex functions. Then, post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), a defense mechanism by which the organism specifically degrades the exogenous nucleic acid, is introduced. The virus vectors best adapted for VIGS and their selection marks are presented. Finally, the chapter presents the most relevant applications of VIGS in studying functional genes related to plant growth and development, to secondary metabolism, to biotic stress and to abiotic stress resistance. The last section describes present problems in VIGS application and the perspectives for the future.