Yu Zongxia, Lv Ruo, Hong Bo, Yang Lei
Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Chinese Materia Medica Resources, Lushan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics and Resources, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Shanghai, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Jan 21;15:1514614. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1514614. eCollection 2024.
spp. generate volatile nepetalactone iridoids that have cat-attractant and insect-repellent activities. They differ from typical mint family (Lamiaceae) iridoids, which are non-volatile glucosides, and also vary from other species in the Nepetoideae sub-family, which do not generate iridoids. The chemistry and evolution of make it suitable for further investigation. However, the lack of transgenic technology hampers the molecular and genetic investigations in . Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a powerful tool to detect gene functions . Here, we constructed a modified VIGS method in , using cotyledon infiltration, with the gene silencing effect spreading to the first two pairs of true leaves. The VIGS efficiency reached as high as 84.4%, and the procedure takes only 3 weeks. We employed this method to validate the role of geraniol 8-hydroxylase in nepetalactone biosynthesis with as a visual marker in . The method is also applicable to . Thus, we developed an easy and effective VIGS approach, which will be advantageous for endogenous gene studies in two species and holds the potential for application in other plants.
某些物种会产生具有吸引猫和驱虫活性的挥发性荆芥内酯类环烯醚萜。它们不同于典型薄荷科（唇形科）的环烯醚萜，后者是不挥发的糖苷，也与荆芥亚科的其他物种不同，那些物种不产生环烯醚萜。其化学性质和进化使其适合进一步研究。然而，缺乏转基因技术阻碍了对其进行分子和遗传研究。病毒诱导的基因沉默（VIGS）是检测基因功能的有力工具。在此，我们在[具体物种]中构建了一种改良的VIGS方法，采用子叶浸润法，基因沉默效果可扩散到最初的两对真叶。VIGS效率高达84.4%，且该过程仅需3周。我们利用此方法，以[具体物种]中的[某种物质]作为视觉标记，验证了香叶醇8 - 羟化酶在荆芥内酯生物合成中的作用。该方法也适用于[其他物种]。因此，我们开发了一种简便有效的VIGS方法，这将有利于对两种[具体物种]的内源基因进行研究，并有望应用于其他植物。
