High-throughput construction of intron-containing hairpin RNA vectors for RNAi in plants

PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e38186. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038186. Epub 2012 May 31.

Abstract

With the wide use of double-stranded RNA interference (RNAi) for the analysis of gene function in plants, a high-throughput system for making hairpin RNA (hpRNA) constructs is in great demand. Here, we describe a novel restriction-ligation approach that provides a simple but efficient construction of intron-containing hpRNA (ihpRNA) vectors. The system takes advantage of the type IIs restriction enzyme BsaI and our new plant RNAi vector pRNAi-GG based on the Golden Gate (GG) cloning. This method requires only a single PCR product of the gene of interest flanked with BsaI recognition sequence, which can then be cloned into pRNAi-GG at both sense and antisense orientations simultaneously to form ihpRNA construct. The process, completed in one tube with one restriction-ligation step, produced a recombinant ihpRNA with high efficiency and zero background. We demonstrate the utility of the ihpRNA constructs generated with pRNAi-GG vector for the effective silencing of various individual endogenous and exogenous marker genes as well as two genes simultaneously. This method provides a novel and high-throughput platform for large-scale analysis of plant functional genomics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Gene Order
  • Gene Silencing
  • Genes, Plant
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Genetic Vectors*
  • Genomics / methods
  • Introns*
  • Plants / genetics*
  • RNA Interference*
  • RNA, Plant / genetics*
  • RNA, Small Interfering / genetics*

Substances

  • RNA, Plant
  • RNA, Small Interfering