Development and application of an infectious clone and gene silencing vector derived from blackberry chlorotic ringspot virus

Blackberry chlorotic ringspot virus (BCRV) was described about 20 years ago and since then there have been several publications of the virus infecting rosaceous hosts including blackberry, raspberry, rose and apple at high rates. Still the effect of the virus on disease development is poorly understood. Aiming to bridge this knowledge gap, we developed a BCRV infectious clone and virus-induced gene silencing vector (VIGS). The infectious clone can induce systemic infection with the transmissibility of the recombinant virus evaluated through mechanical transmission. The VIGS induced silencing using two different inserts, proving the versatility of the construct. The products of this work can be used to study disease development and control as well as functional genomics studies of BCRV hosts.