A cowpea severe mosaic virus-based vector simplifies virus-induced gene silencing and foreign protein expression in soybean

BACKGROUND: Soybean gene functions cannot be easily interrogated through transgenic disruption (knock-out) of genes-of-interest, or transgenic overexpression of proteins-of-interest, because soybean transformation is time-consuming and technically challenging. An attractive alternative is to administer transient gene silencing or overexpression with a plant virus-based vector. However, existing virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and/or overexpression vectors suitable for soybean have various drawbacks that hinder their widespread adoption. RESULTS: We describe the development of a new vector based on cowpea severe mosaic virus (CPSMV), a plus-strand RNA virus with its genome divided into two RNA segments, RNA1 and RNA2. This vector, designated FZ, incorporates a cloning site in the RNA2 cDNA, permitting insertion of nonviral sequences. When paired with an optimized RNA1 construct, FZ readily infects both Nicotiana benthamiana and soybean. As a result, FZ constructs destined for soybean can be first delivered to N. benthamiana in order to propagate the modified viruses to high titers. FZ-based silencing constructs induced robust silencing of phytoene desaturase genes in N. benthamiana, multiple soybean accessions, and cowpea. Meanwhile, FZ supported systemic expression of fluorescent proteins mNeonGreen and mCherry in N. benthamiana and soybean. Finally, FZ-mediated expression of the Arabidopsis transcription factor MYB75 caused N. benthamiana to bear brown leaves and purple, twisted flowers, indicating that MYB75 retained the function of activating anthocyanin synthesis pathways in a different plant. CONCLUSIONS: The new CPSMV-derived FZ vector provides a convenient and versatile soybean functional genomics tool that is expected to accelerate the characterization of soybean genes controlling crucial productivity traits. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13007-022-00950-7.