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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Arbovirus Infections As Screening Tools for the Identification of Viral Immunomodulators and Host Antiviral Factors
Published on: September 13, 2018
Virus-induced gene silencing as a tool to identify host genes affecting viral pathogenicity
Xiaohong Zhu1, S P Dinesh-Kumar
1Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8103, USA.
Abstract:
Host factors are crucial determinants of viral pathogenicity. Identifying host factors and their contributions to virus infections may lead to the development of novel antiviral strategies. The recently developed virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) approach offers a rapid means to knock down expression of a given gene in plants. VIGS can be used to determine biological function of candidate genes or to discover new genes that play a role in a given biological pathway. Here, we describe genome-wide Tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-based VIGS screening methods to identify host factors involved in viral pathogenicity.
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