Virus Inducible Switch

This invention describes a novel platform to control expression of specific plant genes with viruses.

Background:
When many plants are challenged with a viral infection, one of the primary defense mechanisms they have evolved is to deploy the use of plant RNA silencing pathways to control gene expression. Likewise, viruses have co-evolved to evade this mechanism with viral suppressors of RNA silencing.  

In this technology, the inventors propose the use of a novel system that uses these defense mechanisms in plants to create a modular switch that can be attached to any gene of interest in a plant and can be controlled by the presence of a virus. The proposed Virus Inducible Switch (VIS) design is based on artificial miRNA regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) by targeting synthetic 5’ and 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs) of any mRNA.

Applications:

• Gene regulating system with wide-ranging life sciences research applications
• Plant gene regulating with wide-ranging agricultural applications such as disease monitoring and control

 
Advantages:

• Expression can be controlled with a virus-inducible switch
• Uses existing plant mechanisms