VIS: Virus-induced gene silencing:unravelling the basis of a mechanism and its exploitation for the analysis of a multitude of individual gene functions in plants

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 01.0452-1

Key words (English)

Biotechnology; Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Scientific Research

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLG2-CT-2002-01673

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.5 Sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
Universität Basel
Departement für Integrative Biologie
Botanisches Institut

Abstract (English)

The objective of the proposal is to produce a detailed description of the molecular mechanisms underlying different stages of virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in plant cells. VIGS is a recently discovered sequence - specific RNA degradation mechanism in plants, that has a huge potential for the functional analysis of individual genes on the genome-wide scale, provided that its general principles are better understood.

We plan to investigate the following aspects of VIGS: i) viral features detected by the plant^TMs surveillance mechanism; ii) suppressors of VIGS; iii ) host factors required for VIGS; v) role of DNA methylation in VIGS. The fulfilment of the project should pave the path for the construction of generally applicable efficient VIGS vectors for the functional analysis of multitude of plant genes.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 01.0452-1