Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2004 Jul;55(4):521-30.
doi: 10.1007/s11103-004-0590-7.

Chalcone synthase as a reporter in virus-induced gene silencing studies of flower senescence

Jen-Chih Chen  1 , Cai-Zhong Jiang, Timothy E Gookin, Donald A Hunter, David G Clark, Michael S Reid
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Chalcone synthase as a reporter in virus-induced gene silencing studies of flower senescence

Jen-Chih Chen et al. Plant Mol Biol. 2004 Jul.

Abstract

Agrobacterium-mediated infection of petunia (Petunia hybrida) plants with tobacco rattle virus (TRV) bearing fragments of Petunia genes resulted in systemic infection and virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of the homologous host genes. Infection with TRV containing a phytoene desaturase (PDS) fragment resulted in reduced abundance of PDS transcripts and typical photobleaching of photosynthetic tissues. Infection with TRV containing a chalcone synthase (CHS) fragment resulted in silencing of anthocyanin production in infected flowers. The silencing phenotype ranged from scattered white spots on the normal purple background to entirely white flowers. Symptoms in the V26 cultivar were a diffuse mosaic, but infection of some purple-flowered commercial cultivars resulted in large white sectors and even entirely white flowers. Abundance of CHS transcripts in the white flowers was less than 4% of that in purple flowers on the same plant. Infection with TRV containing a tandem construct of PDS and CHS resulted in leaf photobleaching and white patterns on the flowers. Transcripts of CHS and PDS were reduced both in leaves and in flowers confirming simultaneous silencing of both genes by the tandem construct. We tested the effects of infection with TRV containing CHS and a fragment of a petunia gene encoding for 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO4) Abundance of transcripts encoding ACO4 and ACO1 were reduced (by 5% and 20%, respectively) in infected flowers. Whether the flowers were treated with ACC or pollinated, the white (silenced) flowers or flower sectors produced less ethylene and senesced later than purple (non-silenced) tissues. These results indicate the value of VIGS with tandem constructs containing CHS as reporter and a target gene as a tool for examining the function of floral-associated genes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Plant Mol Biol. 1995 Jun;28(3):575-82 - PubMed
    1. Plant J. 2002 Sep;31(6):777-86 - PubMed
    1. Plant J. 2000 Jan;21(1):27-42 - PubMed
    1. Plant Cell. 1990 Apr;2(4):279-289 - PubMed
    1. Plant Physiol. 1989 Jun;90(2):690-6 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources