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Construction of Hairpin RNA-Expressing Vectors for RNA-Mediated Gene Silencing in Fungi

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Plant Fungal Pathogens

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 835))

Abstract

RNA-mediated gene silencing is one of the major tools for functional genomics in fungi and can be achieved by transformation with constructs that express hairpin (hp) RNA with sequences homologous to the target gene(s). To make an hpRNA expression construct, a portion of the target gene can be amplified by PCR and cloned into a vector as an inverted repeat. The generic gene-silencing vectors such as the pSilent1 and pSGate1 have been developed and are available for RNA-mediated gene-silencing studies. In this protocol, we describe construction of hpRNA-expressing constructs using both pSilent1 and pSGate1. With pSilent1, the PCR products of the target gene are inserted into the vector by conventional cloning (i.e., restriction enzyme digestion and ligation). For pSGate1, the PCR products of the target gene are inserted into the vector through the Gateway-directed recombination system. In this chapter, we describe the construction of RNAi vectors for RNA-mediated gene silencing using both pSilent1 and pSGate1.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. H. Nakayashiki (Kobe University, Japan) for generously providing pSilent-1.

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Correspondence to Shaobin Zhong .

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Zhong, S., Leng, Y., Bolton, M.D. (2012). Construction of Hairpin RNA-Expressing Vectors for RNA-Mediated Gene Silencing in Fungi. In: Bolton, M., Thomma, B. (eds) Plant Fungal Pathogens. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 835. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-501-5_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-501-5_40

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-500-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-501-5

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