Virus-induced gene silencing in strawberry fruit

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a technology that exploits an RNA-mediated antiviral defense mechanism and which has great potential for use in plant reverse genetics. Recently, whole-genome studies and gene sequencing in plants have produced a massive amount of sequence information. A major challenge for plant biologists is to convert this sequence information into functional information. In this study, we demonstrate that VIGS can be used to determine gene functions in strawberry and that it is a powerful new tool for studying fruit ripening. The ABA synthetic gene FaNCED1, which can promote strawberry fruit ripening, was used as the reporter gene. In this chapter, we describe the use of TRV-mediated VIGS in strawberry fruit.