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Abstract

Functional genomics in plants has been facilitated greatly by the use of plant viruses to carry segments of host genes that can then promote the silencing of the RNAs expressed from the corresponding host genes; a process called virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). The silencing of genes in filamentous fungi is either technically more problematic or labor-intensive, especially if transgenic plants need to be generated first. However, a recent paper from our team demonstrated that a plant virus could infect three related fungal species, as well as express a reporter gene ectopically, and also silence the correspondingly expressed reporter transgene. The gene expression and RNA silencing of the reporter gene was maintained for six passages in culture and also persisted in plants infected by the virus-infected fungus. Here, we consider how the virus can enter and migrate within the fungus, whether the virus can move back and forth between the fungus and the plant and the ramifications of this, the prospects for VIGS being used to silence fungal endogenes and possible biotechnological or therapeutic applications of using plant viruses for expressing foreign proteins in fungi or silencing fungal endogenes.

Tobacco mosaic virus infection triggers an RNAi-based response in Phytophthora infestans

“…Thus, the evidence reported here may expand the information about RNAi and VSRs as trans-kingdom complementary mechanisms. In addition, results from this study highlight the utility of plants viruses for functional genomic studies in filamentous fungi 39,40 . Besides of being a new piece of work, the system described here pushes forward also the understanding on mechanisms of pathogen specialization and adaptation to new host species 35 .…”