Nanovector-mediated exogenous delivery of dsRNA induces silencing of target genes in very young tomato flower buds
Barbara Molesini, Federica Pennisi, Chiara Cressoni, Nicola Vitulo, Valentina Dusi, Adolfo Speghini, Tiziana Pandolfini
Abstract
. Silencing of the two repressors caused an increase in ovary size only when flower buds were treated with dsRNA coupled to LDHs. RNA-Seq of small RNAs showed that induction of RNAi was caused by the processing of injected dsRNA. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time that exogenous dsRNA coupled to LDHs can induce post-transcriptional gene silencing in the young tomato ovary by injection into the flower pedicel. This method represents a silencing tool for the study of the molecular changes occurring during the early stages of ovary/fruit growth as a consequence of downregulation of target genes, without the need to produce transgenic plants stably expressing RNAi constructs.