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Heat-Inducible RNAi for Gene Functional Analysis in Plants

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Book cover RNAi and Plant Gene Function Analysis

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 744))

Abstract

Controlling gene expression during plant development is an efficient method to explore gene function and RNA interference (RNAi) is now considered as a powerful technology for gene functional analysis. However, constitutive gene silencing cannot be used with genes involved in fundamental processes such as embryo viability or plant growth and alternative silencing strategies avoiding these limitations should be preferred. Tissue-specific and inducible promoters, able to control gene expression at spatial and/or temporal level, can be used to circumvent viability problems. In this chapter, after a rapid overview of the inducible promoters currently used for transgenic approaches in plants, we describe a method we have developed to study gene function by heat-inducible RNAi. This system is easy to use and complementary to those based on chemical gene inducer treatments and might be useful for both research and biotechnological applications.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Phil Mullineaux and Roger Hellens from John Innes Centre and the BBSRC for providing us with pGREEN and pSOUP vectors. We are grateful to Rafaël Pont-Lezica, Séverine Lorrain, and Martine Charpenteau for discussion and critical reading of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Frédéric Masclaux

  2. UMR 5546 CNRS-Université Toulouse III, Pôle de Biotechnologie végétale, 31326, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Jean-Philippe Galaud

Authors
  1. Frédéric Masclaux
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  2. Jean-Philippe Galaud
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Correspondence to Jean-Philippe Galaud .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University, Yayoi-cho 1-33, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan

    Hiroaki Kodama

  2. Evolutionary Biology, Research Institute of, Kamiyoga 2-4-28, Tokyo, Setagaya, 158-0098, Japan

    Atsushi Komamine

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Masclaux, F., Galaud, JP. (2011). Heat-Inducible RNAi for Gene Functional Analysis in Plants. In: Kodama, H., Komamine, A. (eds) RNAi and Plant Gene Function Analysis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 744. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-123-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-123-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-122-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-123-9

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