植物病毒诱导的基因沉默在基因功能研究中的应用

Applications of Plant Virus Induced Gene Silencing for Gene Function Studies

传统的植物遗传转化方法周期长、工作量大、过程繁琐,不利于基因功能的快速高通量鉴定．近年来随着基因沉默机制研究的深入和不断发展,利用病毒诱导的基因沉默(Virus induced gene silencing,VIGS)进行植物功能基因组研究作为一种快速、高通量的反向遗传学工具已被广泛应用在烟草、马铃薯、番茄等植物中, 在大规模的植物基因组功能鉴定中展示了广阔的应用前景．综述了 VIGS 的作用机制、植物病毒栽体、转化方法以及在植物基因功能研究等方面的应用及前景．

Virus-induced gene silencing(VIGS)is a recently developed gene transcript suppression technique for characterizing the function of plant genes.Up to now,various VIGS vectors based on RNA virus,DNA virus,satellite virus and DNA satellite have been established,these VIGS vector could suppress gene expression effectively in many important plants including N.benthamiana,potato and tomato.The mechanisms of VIGS and how it can be used as a fast and high-throughput reverse genetics tool in analysis of the gene function are described.The future prospects of VIGS vectors for assessing and characterizing the function of plant genes are discussed.