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Abstract
We have previously demonstrated that a tobacco rattle virus (TRV)-based vector can be used in virus-
induced gene silencing (VIGS) to study gene function in Nicotiana benthamiana. Here we show that
recombinant TRV infects tomato plants and induces efcient gene silencing. Using this system, we
suppressed the PDS, CTR1 and CTR2 genes in tomato. Suppression of CTR1 led to a constitutive
ethylene response phenotype and up-regulation of an ethylene response gene, CHITINASE B. This
phenotype is similar to Arabidopsis ctr1 mutant plants. We have constructed a modied TRV vector
based on the GATEWAY recombination system, allowing restriction- and ligation-free cloning. Our
results show that tomato expressed sequence tags (ESTs) can easily be cloned into this modied vector
using a single set of primers. Using this vector, we have silenced RbcS and an endogenous gene
homologous to the tomato EST cLED3L14. In the future, this modied vector system will facilitate large-
scale functional analysis of tomato ESTs.
Keywords: tobacco rattle virus vector, gene silencing, tomato, tCTR1, functional genomics, GATEWAY
cloning.
Introduction
The ability to sequence plant genomes has resulted in the Waterhouse et al., 1998). A modication of this method
identication of large numbers of novel open reading uses a single-stranded self-complementary (hairpin) RNA,
frames (ORFs). Large-scale functional genomic approaches containing an intron, to suppress gene function (Smith
are necessary for converting this sequence information et al., 2000). However, all of these approaches rely on the
into functional information. Traditionally, T-DNA (Azpiroz- generation of transgenic lines, which, for high throughput
Leehan and Feldman, 1997; Krysan et al., 1999) and analyses, strictly limits their use to Arabidopsis.
transposon-based (Martienssen, 1998; Parinov et al., Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) offers an attractive
1999; Speulman et al., 1999; Tissier et al., 1999) insertional and quick alternative for knocking out expression of a gene
mutant populations have provided the resources for the without the need to genetically transform the plant. Using
analysis of phenotypes. Large collections of such insertion this method, recombinant virus carrying a partial sequence
and deletion mutant populations have been generated for of a host gene is used to infect the plant. When the virus
plants like Arabidopsis thaliana due to the ease of trans- spreads systemically, the endogenous gene transcripts,
formation (Clough and Bent, 1998). However, these mutant which are homologous to the insert in the viral vector
collections have limitations such as difculty in disrupting (VIGS-vector), are degraded by post-transcriptional gene
or tagging all genes, gene target bias, lack of phenotype silencing (PTGS) (Baulcombe, 1999). PTGS in plants bears
due to high degree of gene duplication in the plant similarity to quelling in Neurospora and RNA interference
genome, and loss of insertions that cause lethality. More (RNAi) in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, and mam-
recently, dsRNA-mediated suppression of genes by vec- mals (Waterhouse et al., 2001). PTGS functions via a
tors that produce sense and antisense transcripts has been sequence-specic RNA degradation mechanism that is
successfully employed (Chuang and Meyerowitz, 2000; triggered by double stranded RNA (dsRNA). Recently,
2002 Blackwell Science Ltd 777
778 Yule Liu et al.
exhibit a photo-bleached phenotype (Kumagi et al., 1995). plants are severely dwarfed and constitutively express
Tomato plants infected with pTRV-tPDS developed a ethylene inducible genes (Kieber et al., 1993). In tomato,
photo-bleached phenotype in the upper leaves 10 days there are two CTR1-like genes, tCTR1 (Wang and Li, 1997;
post-Agro-inltration and remained white for at least Zegzouti et al., 1999) and tCTR2 (AJ005077). tCTR1 is 58%
1 month (Figure 3). The Agrobacterium inltration method identical and 65% similar to Arabidopsis CTR1 at the
of infecting pTRV-tPDS resulted in the PDS silencing amino acid level. tCTR2 is 60% identical and 76% similar to
phenotype in only ve out of 10 tomato plants (50% tCTR1 in the C-terminus kinase domain but only 38%
efciency). In contrast, when this technique was applied in identical and 55% similar in the N-terminus non-kinase
N. benthamiana, all plants infected with pTRV-NbPDS domain. The tCTR2 kinase domain bears a high degree of
exhibited PDS silencing (Liu et al., 2002). homology to Arabidopsis EDR1 (85% identical) at the
To improve the silencing efciency, we tested a spray amino acid level. The Arabidopsis EDR1 gene encodes a
technique for the delivery of TRV into tomato plants putative MAPKKK and the mutant, edr1, has an elevated
(Figure 2b). The Agrobacterium mixture was sprayed onto resistance to Pseudomonas syringae and Erysiphe cichor-
3-week-old tomato plants using an artist's airbrush (see acearum (Frye et al., 2001). The biological functions of
the Experimental procedures section). This method tCTR1 and tCTR2 in tomato have not been examined.
resulted in substantial improvement in the silencing To examine whether tCTR1 and tCTR2 are true homo-
efciency. Of the 10 plants sprayed with pTRV-tPDS, nine logs of the Arabidopsis CTR1 gene, we silenced these
(90%) exhibited the PDS suppression phenotype. These genes in tomato and in N. benthamiana using the TRV-
results suggest that spraying Agrobacterium is more VIGS assay. Suppression of tCTR1 in VF36 tomato plants
effective than inltration in the induction of silencing in resulted in a constitutive ethylene response phenotype
tomato plants. Perhaps the Agrobacterium inltration similar to that observed in Arabidopsis. They were
method is not very efcient due to the compact architec- severely dwarfed compared with the non-silenced plants
ture of the young tomato leaves. Additionally, wounding (Figure 5a). On the other hand, the suppression of tCTR2
caused by the spray technique may mobilize T-DNA had no effect on plant growth or development (data not
transfer more effectively into the tomato cells. shown). Since tomato and tobacco share very high
Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed to conrm PDS sequence similarity, we investigated whether CTR1 homo-
silencing. The primers that anneal to the PDS gene outside logs of tobacco can induce a similar phenotype in N.
the region targeted for silencing were used. In pTRV-tPDS benthamiana. As expected, suppression of NbCTR1 leads
infected plants, the PDS message was reduced by more to a severe dwarf phenotype similar to that observed in
than 78% compared with the TRV infected controls (Figure tomato (Figure 5b) and NbCTR2 suppression had no effect
4b). The level of EF1a RNA was similar in TRV-tPDS and TRV (data not shown).
alone infected tissue and served as an internal control for To conrm the tCTR1 suppression at the molecular level,
RNA quality and RT-PCR amplication (Figure 4a). The level we performed semiquantitative RT-PCR. In TRV-tCTR1
of suppression of PDS in tomato by the TRV-VIGS vector is infected plants, the tCTR1 message was reduced by more
comparable with PDS silencing in N. benthamiana (data not than 81% compared to the controls infected with TRV alone
shown). The fact that TRV effectively caused the VIGS of (Figure 4c). In both tissue RNA samples, EF1a expression
PDS in tomato suggests that other nuclear genes could be levels were similar (data not shown) and served as an
targeted for silencing in a similar manner. internal control. Because the region targeted for silencing
tCTR1 has 70% similarity to tCTR2 at the nucleotide level,
we tested whether TRV-tCTR1 could also suppress tCTR2.
Silencing of the CTR1 homolog in tomato and N.
Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis-using primers that
benthamiana leads to a constitutive ethylene response
anneal to tCTR2, showed that the tCTR2 message level is
phenotype
not affected in the TRV-tCTR1 silenced plants (Figure 4d).
The phytohormone ethylene participates in a variety of To rule out the possibility that the absence of a develop-
physiological processes in plants including germination, mental phenotype in TRV-tCTR2 suppressed plants is due
cell elongation, ower and leaf senescence, sex determin- to lack of suppression of endogenous tCTR2, we performed
ation, fruit ripening and abscission, wounding and patho- semiquantitative RT-PCR analysis. In tCTR2 silenced plants
gen infection (Abeles et al., 1992; Johnson and Ecker, there was an 85% reduction of tCTR2 mRNA compared with
1998). In Arabidopsis, the CTR1 (constitutive triple the TRV infected control plants (Figure 4e). These results
response 1) gene encodes a Raf-like mitogen-activated suggest that tCTR2 is effectively silenced by VIGS although
protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK) that functions there is no visible phenotype.
downstream of an ethylene receptor and negatively regu- The mutation in CTR1 in Arabidopsis causes constitutive
lates the ethylene response (Kieber et al., 1993). The ctr1 expression of CHITINASE B (CHIB), an ethylene inducible
loss-of-function mutation confers a phenotype in which gene (Kieber et al., 1993). We examined the level of CHIB
RNA expression in tCTR1 suppressed tomato plants using 29 000 unique sequence clones (Uni ESTs). Many of these
RNA blots hybridized with the CHIB gene. CHIB was not ESTs show homology to genes in Arabidopsis. The TRV-
detected in wild-type plants (Figure 5c, lane 1) and very VIGS approach described in this manuscript offers great
low expression was observed in non-silenced TRV infected promise for studying tomato Uni-ESTs function. However,
plants (Figure 5c, lane 3). However, in the tCTR1 silenced insertion of tomato ESTs into pTRV2 using a traditional
plants, the CHIB gene was highly expressed (Figure 5c, cloning method is labor-intensive and time-consuming.
lane 2). These results suggest that suppression of tCTR1 in Therefore, we modied the pTRV2 clone using the
tomato leads to constitutive expression of ethylene-regu- GATEWAY system (Invitrogen, CA, USA). The GATEWAY
lated genes. Taken together, our results show that the TRV- technology allows fast and easy cloning that is restriction
based VIGS vector can efciently phenocopy the effects of enzyme- and ligation-free. Consequently, the Uni ESTs can
mutations in different nuclear genes in tomato. be cloned en masse into this pTRV2 vector.
The construct, pTRV2-attP1-attP2, was generated to
facilitate en masse cloning of tomato ESTs (Figure 6a).
Modication of the TRV2 vector for high throughput
The PCR products anked by attB1 and attB2 sequences
cloning
directionally recombine in vitro at attP1 and attP2 sites
In the TIGR (The Institute of Genomic Research) database contained in the plasmid when incubated with the BP
there are over 100 000 tomato ESTs corresponding to CLONASE enzyme (Figure 6b). When this reaction mixture
The efciency of cloning a target sequence for silencing alone infected control plants (Figure 8). This phenotype is
into this vector is about 90%. similar to that reported by Ratcliff et al. (2001) in N.
To determine whether the pTRV2-attR2-attR1 vector benthamiana. Furthermore, semiquantitative RT-PCR
efciently mediates gene silencing similar to original analysis suggests that the endogenous tRbcS mRNA is
pTRV2 vector, we cloned PDS and the small sub-unit of reduced by 76% compared with the TRV infected control
the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (tRbcS). Compared plants (Figure 4F).
with PDS, the RbcS is encoded by a multigene family and In order to demonstrate that tomato ESTs can be
is expressed in abundance. The efciency of silencing PDS easily cloned into the pTRV2-attR2-attR1 destination
was similar to that of the original pTRV2 vector (data not vector, we cloned 10 tomato ESTs that bear homology
shown). The tRbcS silenced plants developed pale yellow to a serine/threonine kinase (The Institute of Genomic
leaves 12 days post-Agro-inltration compared to the TRV- Research). Primer sequences were designed that
Figure 8. Silencing of the tomato RbcS using the pTRV2 GATEWAY vector.
Infection of VF36 tomato plants with recombinant TRV GATEWAY alone (a) or TRV GATEWAY carrying the tomato RbcS (TRV-tRbcS) (b). Infection with
TRV-tRbcS silences endogenous RbcS and causes development of pale yellow leaves (b).
pTRV2-tPDS: a 409-bp fragment of PDS cDNA fragment corres- TGC TTC CTC TGT CAT TTC TTC AGC-3 and 5- GGG GAC CAC
ponding to bases 8581266 of tomato PDS gene was PCR TTT GTA CAA GAA AGC TGG GTC CAC TTG ACG CAC ATT GTC
amplied from tomato VF36 cDNA using Taq DNA polymerase GAA TCC-3. This PCR product was recombined into pTRV2-attR2-
and the primers 5-CGG TCT AGA GGC ACT CAA CTT TAT AAA attR1 vector as described above for cloning PDS.
CC-3 and 5-CGG GGA TCC CTT CAG TTT TCT GTC AAA CC-3. pTRV2-attB2-tomato ESTs-attB1: 10 tomato ESTs that bear
The resulting PCR product was cloned into XbaI-BamHI-cut homology to serine/threonine kinases were amplied by PCR
pTRV2. using a forward primer containing the attB1 sequence and a
pTRV2-tCTR1: a 690-bp fragment of tCTR1 cDNA fragment reverse primer containing the attB2 sequence, which anneals to
corresponding to bases 19062595 of tomato CTR1 (Wang and Li, the vector pBluescript SK () containing tomato ESTs. The
1997) was PCR amplied from tomato VF36 cDNA using Taq DNA forward primer is 5-G GGG ACA AGT TTG TAC AAA AAA GCA
polymerase and the primers 5-CGG GAA TTC GTT GCA ATT ATG GGC TCC CCC GGG CTG CAG GAA TTC-3 and the reverse primer
AAG CGG TTG CG-3 and 5- CGG CTC GAG TCA TGA GAG CAA is G GGG ACC ACT TTG TAC AAG AAA GCT GGG TGG TAC CGG
CTG CAT GTC TG T-3. The resulting PCR product was cloned into GCC CCC CCT CGA G-3. The resulting PCR products with terminal
EcoRI-XhoI-cut pTRV2. attB1 and attB2 sequences were precipitated and incubated with
pTRV2-tCTR2: a 537-bp fragment of CTR2 cDNA fragment pDONR-mod vector containing the attP1 and attP2 recombination
corresponding to bases 25063042 of tomato CTR2 (GenBank sites and the BP CLONASE enzyme. To this, the pTRV2-attR2-
#AJ005077) was PCR amplied from tomato VF36 cDNA using attR1 destination vector containing the attR1 and attR2 recombi-
Taq DNA polymerase and the primers 5-CGG GAA TTC GCC CTT nation sites and the LR CLONASE enzyme was added. This
GAT GTG GCA AAG GGC AT 3 and 5-CGG CTC GAG GTA GAA mixture was transformed into DH10B chemical competent cells
TTT ACT GAG ATT TCC TG-3. The resulting PCR product was and selected on kanamycin-containing LB plates. Clones were
cloned into EcoRI-XhoI-cut pTRV2. veried by restriction enzyme digestion and by sequencing the
pTRV2-NbCTR1: a 690-bp of CTR1 cDNA fragment was PCR vector-insert junctions.
amplied from N. benthamiana cDNA using Taq DNA polymerase
and the primers used to amplify tCTR1. The resulting PCR product
was cloned into EcoRI-XhoI-cut pTRV2. Agro-inltration and spray
pTRV2-NbCTR2: a 537-bp of CTR2 cDNA fragment was PCR
N. benthamiana and tomato plants were grown in pots at 25C in
amplied from N. benthamiana cDNA using Taq DNA polymerase
a growth chamber under 16 h light/8 h dark cycle with 60%
and the primers used to amplify tCTR2. The resulting PCR product
humidity. For the VIGS assay, pTRV1 or pTRV2 and its derivatives
was cloned into EcoRI-XhoI-cut pTRV2.
were introduced into Agrobacterium strain GV3101 by electro-
pTRV2-attP1-attP2: The DNA fragment containing attP1-ccdB-
poration (BIO-RAD, Hercules, CA, USA). A 5-ml culture was grown
CmR.-attP2 amplied from pDONR201 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA,
overnight at 28C in the appropriate antibiotic selection medium.
USA) using primers 5-CGG GAA TTC TAG AGG CGC GCC AAA
The next day, the culture was inoculated into a 50-ml LB medium
TAA TGA TTT TAT TTT GAC TGA TAG TGA C-3 and 5-C GGC
containing antibiotics, 10 mM MES and 20 mM acetosyringone.
TCG AGA GCT CAA ATA ATG ATT TTA TTT TGA CTG ATA GTG
The culture was grown overnight in a 28C shaker. Agrobacterium
AC-3. This PCR product was cloned into EcoRI-XhoI-cut pTRV2
cells were harvested and resuspended in inltration media
(Liu et al., 2002).
(10 mM MgCl2, 10 mM MES, 200 mM acetosyringone), adjusted
pDONR-mod: This vector was generated by deleting the frag-
to an O.D. of 2.0 and left at room temperature for 3 h.
ment containing the kanamycin gene between PvuI and NruI of
Agrobacterium was inltrated using a needle less 1 ml syringe
pDONR201 (Invitrogen) and religating the vector.
or sprayed using an artist's airbrush (Paasche, Harwood Heights,
pTRV2-attR2-attR1: HindIII-DraIII(T4 DNA polymerase treated)
IL, USA, model VL80) connected to a portable air compressor
fragment of pYL156 (Liu et al., 2002) containing 2xCaMV promoter (Campbell Havsfeld, Harrison, OH, USA) set at 75 psi. Plants were
and TRV-RNA2 cDNA with the NOS terminator was cloned into left covered overnight.
pBin19 to obtain pYL276. pTRV2-attR1-attR2 was obtained by
inserting the GATEWAY conversion cassette B (Invitrogen) into
pYL276 at the StuI site.
pTRV2-attL1-NbPDS-attL2 and pYL157: N. benthamiana PDS RNA isolation, Northern blot and RT-PCR analysis
cDNA containing the attB1 and attB2 sequences was obtained by Total RNA was extracted from silenced and non-silenced tomato
PCR amplication using the TRV-PDS clone (Liu et al., 2002) as plants using the RNAwiz solution (Ambion, Austin, TX, USA) and
template and primers: 5-G GGG ACA AGT TTG TAC AAA AAA treated with RNase-free DNase (Gene Hunter, Nashville, TN,
GCA GGC TCT GAC GAG CTT TCG ATG CAG-3 and 5-GGG GAC USA). First strand cDNA was synthesized using 1 mg of total RNA,
CAC TTT GTA CAA GAA AGC TGG GTA TAT ATG GAC ATT TAT oligo d(T)primer and superscript reverse transcriptase
CAC A 3. This PDS PCR product was recombined into pTRV2- (Invitrogen). Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed as de-
attP1-attP2 using the BP CLONASE enzyme reaction (Invitrogen). scribed in (Burton et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2002). For RT-PCR,
pTRV2-attB2-NbPDS-attB1: N. benthamiana PDS cDNA contain- primers that anneal outside the region targeted for silencing were
ing the attB1 and attB2 sequences was obtained by PCR, as used to ensure that only the endogenous gene was being tested.
described above. This PDS PCR product was recombined into The intensities of PCR-generated fragments were analyzed and
pDONR-mod vector containing the attP1 and attP2 recombination quantied using Gel Doc 2000 and Quantity One Version 4.3 (BIO-
sites using the BP CLONASE enzyme. To this, the pTRV2-attR1- RAD, CA).
attR2 destination vector and the LR CLONASE enzyme was added. RNA blots were prepared using 5 or 10 mg of total RNA. To
This mixture was transformed into DH10B chemical competent conrm TRV infection, RNA blots were hybridized with a probe
cells and selected on kanamycin-containing LB plates. derived from the 3-end of TRV RNA1 (bases 53516791) and
pTRV2-attB2-tRbcS-attB1: A 500-bp tRbcS cDNA containing the RNA2 (bases 12452103). To determine the CHIB message level, a
attB1 and attB2 sequences was obtained by PCR using VF36 cDNA fragment of CHIB was PCR amplied from tomato cDNA using
and primers 5-GGG GAC AAG TTT GTA CAA AAA AGC AGG CTC primers 5-ACT GTT TCC TTA GAG AGC AAG GTA G-3 and
5-CAA CTA ATA GTC CGT TTC CAA AAG ACC-3 and this Gonczy, P., Echeverri, C., Oegema, K. et al. (2000) Functional
fragment was used as a probe. genomic analysis of cell division in C. elegans using RNAi of
genes of chromosome III. Nature, 408, 331336.
Johnson, P.R. and Ecker, J.R. (1998) The ethylene gas signal
Acknowledgements transduction pathway: a molecular perspective. Annu. Rev.
Genet. 32, 227254.
We thank Janet Stewart for editing the manuscript. We thank the
Jones, D.A., Thomas, C.M., Hammond-Kosack, K.E., Balint-Kurti,
members of the S.P.D-K lab for thoughtful comments and critical
P.J. and Jones, J.D.G. (1994) Isolation of the tomato Cf-9 gene
reading of the manuscript. The National Science Foundation Plant
for resistance to Cladosporium fulvum by transposon tagging.
Genome Grant DBI-0077510 to S.P.D-K supported this work.
Science, 266, 789793.
Keddie, J.S., Carroll, B., Jones, J.D.G. and Gruissem, W. (1996)
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