An essential strategy for studying a gene’s function is to silence its expression in the living organism and observe the resulting phenotype. To this end, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a popular tool that can selectively and transiently knockdown genes of interest (GOIs; Ratcliff et al., 1997; Courdavault and Besseau, 2020). VIGS analysis looks for association between gene expression levels and phenotypic changes in the plant, and identifying the tissues in which the silencing occurs is thus critical. This localization task, however, is more often than not precarious. In this issue of Plant Physiology, Yamamoto et al. (2021) report an innovative VIGS method that allows simple, high-throughput, and accurate localization of silencing. The researchers demonstrated the use of the improved tool in discovering serpentine synthase, a long-elusive and important gene in monoterpenoid indole alkaloid (MIA) biosynthesis in the medicinal plant Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus).

中文翻译：

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植物代谢中的基因发现：聆听寂静之声，但在哪里？


研究基因功能的一个基本策略是沉默其在生物体中的表达并观察由此产生的表型。为此，病毒诱导的基因沉默（VIGS）是一种流行的工具，可以选择性地、短暂地敲低感兴趣的基因（GOIs；Ratcliff 等人，1997；Courdavault 和 Besseau，2020）。 VIGS 分析寻找植物中基因表达水平和表型变化之间的关联，因此识别发生沉默的组织至关重要。然而，这种本地化任务往往是不稳定的。在本期植物生理学中，Yamamoto 等人。 (2021) 报告了一种创新的 VIGS 方法，该方法可以实现简单、高通量且准确的沉默定位。研究人员展示了使用改进的工具发现蛇纹石合酶，蛇纹石合酶是药用植物马达加斯加长春花（长春花）单萜吲哚生物碱（MIA）生物合成中长期难以捉摸的重要基因。