Patent ID: 7485774

Claim:
A method for introducing inhibitory RNA into a plant cell, plant tissue, or plant, said method comprising (a) providing a viral RNA vector derived from satellite tobacco mosaic virus (STMV), and (b) infecting the plant cell, plant tissue, or plant with said viral RNA vector and a corresponding helper virus, wherein said viral RNA vector comprises in sequence (1) the nucleotide sequence encoding the polypeptide consisting of the N-terminal third of the amino acids of the STMV coat protein, (2) a nucleotide sequence comprising at least 27 contiguous nucleotides of nucleotides 1365 to 1394 of SEQ ID NO: 3, (3) a gene-silencing construct comprising a nucleotide sequence of at least 27 contiguous nucleotides of a target gene within the plant cell, plant tissue, or plant, which when transcribed yields said inhibitory RNA, and (4) a nucleotide sequence comprising nucleotides 603 to 1059 of SEQ ID NO: 1.