Virus-Induced Gene Silencing in the Tea Plant (Camellia sinensis)

The recent availability of a number of tea plant genomes has sparked substantial interest in using reverse genetics to explore gene function in tea (Camellia sinensis). However, a hurdle to this is the absence of an efficient transformation system, and virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS), a transient transformation system, could be an optimal choice for validating gene function in the tea plant. In this study, phytoene desaturase (PDS), a carotenoid biosynthesis gene, was used as a reporter to evaluate the VIGS system. The injection sites of the leaves (leaf back, petiole, and stem) for infiltration were tested, and the results showed that petiole injection had the most effective injection, without leading to necrotic lesions that cause the leaves to drop. Tea leaves were inoculated with Agrobacterium harboring a tobacco rattle virus plasmid (pTRV2) containing a CsPDS silencing fragment. The tea leaves exhibited chlorosis symptoms 7–14 days after inoculation, depending on the cultivar. In the chlorosis plants, the coat protein (CP) of tobacco rattle virus (TRV) was detected and coincided with the lower transcription of CsPDS and reduced chlorophyll content compared with the empty vector control, with 81.82% and 54.55% silencing efficiency of ‘LTDC’ and ‘YSX’, respectively. These results indicate that the VIGS system with petiole injection could quickly and effectively silence a gene in tea plants.