Virus-Induced Gene Silencing in Poaceae Using a Foxtail Mosaic Virus Vector

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a powerful tool for rapidly knocking down the expression of plant genes to elucidate functional genomics. We have established a VIGS vector for monocot plants derived from Foxtail mosaic virus (FoMV), a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus. For silencing a targeted gene, plant gene fragment was inserted into the vector between open reading frame 4 (ORF4) and ORF5 under the control of a duplicated coat protein promoter. Plants of different monocot species were infected by mechanical inoculation with sap from FoMV derivative-infected Chenopodium quinoa leaves. Gene silencing was typically observed within 2-3 weeks after inoculation. In this chapter, we describe the detailed protocol for silencing a target gene in various Poaceae plants by using FoMV-based vectors.