Patent ID: 7005559

Claim:
A method of silencing the expression of a target sequence within the genome of a plant, which method comprises the steps of: a) providing a first plant capable of regenerating; b) hybridizing said first plant with a second plant double transformed with: i) a first DNA construct comprising the T7 RNA polymerase gene (T7-pol) and a NLS sequence, said construct further comprising at least one plant promoter and at least one plant terminator sequence operably linked to said T7-pol; and with ii) a second DNA construct comprising a T7 promoter sequence (pT7), a targeting sequence downstream to said pT7 and a 3′ non-translated terminator sequence operably linked to said targeting sequence, said construct optionally further comprising additional regulatory elements operably linked to said targeting sequence; and c) selecting those plants obtained by the hybridization of step (b), in which the expression of said target sequence is silenced.