Identifying the roles of genes in $\textit{N. attenuata}$ flower opening and scent using VIGS (virus-induced gene silencing)

Abstract

Plant flowers are reproductively important parts of the plant, producing pollinater attraction, defense mechanisms, and seeds. However, the molecular biological mechanisms for the opening of these flowers and the release of fragrance are not well understood. Based on the previous study, using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in wild tobacco, aquaporin TIP and PIP genes, known to be involved in petal expansion, and the ABC transporter genes, which are known to be required for active volatile transport, were silenced and the phenotype was observed. VIGS is a post-transcriptional gene silencing method that employs an RNA interference mechanism. By VIGS method, candidate genes were silenced which are selected by time-course bulk RNA sequencing. In $\textit{N. attenuata}$ flower, g15174, aquaporin related gene downregulated flowers showed less opened petal phenotype. In scent analysis by GC-MS, g06500g13148 and g32098, ABC transporter genes, both displayed a significant difference in Benzyl acetone (BA) and benzyl alcohol emission. However, they did not show any statistical difference among benzoic acid, benzaldehyde, and terpene.