Patent ID: 8853493

Claim:
A method of virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in cotton comprising: (a) inserting a nucleic acid comprising a first silencing sequence capable of silencing a first desired gene into a vector comprising a tobacco rattle virus (TRV) RNA2 sequence to produce a vector comprising a modified TRV RNA2 sequence; (b) preparing a mixed culture of Agrobacterium comprising Agrobacterium containing a vector comprising a modified TRV RNA1 sequence and Agrobacterium containing the vector comprising the modified TRV RNA2 sequence, wherein the modified TRV RNA1 sequence is a TRV RNA1 sequence into which an intron has been inserted, wherein the insertion is within positions corresponding to 10919-10922 of SEQ ID NO: 1; (c) introducing the mixed culture of Agrobacterium into plant tissue of cotton to produce infected plant tissue; and (d) growing the infected plant tissue for a sufficient to produce systemic TRV infection in the infected plants and to thereby induce gene silencing of the first desired gene.