Establishment of Virus-Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) System in Perennial <em>Rosa</em> Plants under Field Conditions

Abstract

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) technique, which is developed in recent years, is a rapid identification of plant gene function from reverse genetics. It is a manifestation of post-transcriptional gene silencing mechanism. Compared with the traditional transgenic technology, VIGS is a transient expression system, which can achieve good results in a short time. At present, it is widely used to study the function of plant genes, but most of them are model plants, and the experiments are carried out always in the indoor environment with controlled light and temperature conditions. In this study, we creatively provided a method to establish VIGS system using perennial Rosa plants as experimental materials under field conditions. The recombinant virus vector was constructed with RrGT1 gene as reporter gene and modified TRV-GFP virus as vector, and the perennial R. rugosa “Zizhi” and R. davurica were used as experimental verification materials. According to the growth conditions of Rosa plants, the natural environment in the field and the optimal conditions for the occurrence of VIGS, the technical problems such as the confirmation of the inoculation period, the preparation of the infective fluid, the inoculation technology of the virus vector and the light and temperature conditions of plant materials cultured after inoculation were solved one by one. When the RrGT1 gene was silenced, the Rosa plants showed a pale petal color phenotype. By detection, it was found that the expression of endogenous RrGT1 gene was significantly down-regulated, and the content of all anthocyanins also decreased significantly. Therefore, we believed that the attempt to establish VIGS system in perennial Rosa plants under field conditions was very successful.