Virus-induced gene silencing in plant species

Abstract

As a method of post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS), virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) became a powerful tool for the study of gene function in plants. Current researches are focused on unraveling the mechanisms of PTGS, finding novel viral vectors and new infection methods in order to broaden the host species spectrum, and establishing the new reporter gene system of VIGS to demonstrate gene silencing, as well as developing the high-throughput silencing for genomic scale research. The aim of this review is to bring together recent advances of VIGS, an attractive method, for understanding it in the study of plants.