We show that apple latent spherical virus (ALSV) can induce gene silencing of quinoa phytoene desaturase ( CqPDS1) in a broad range of quinoa inbred lines derived from the northern and southern highland and lowland sub-populations. Here, we demonstrate that two virus-mediated transient expression techniques, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and virus-mediated overexpression (VOX), can be used in quinoa. Even though challenges of analyzing the complex and heterogeneous allotetraploid genome of quinoa have recently been overcome, with the whole genome-sequencing of quinoa and the creation of genotyped inbred lines, the lack of technology to analyze gene function in planta is a major limiting factor in quinoa research. Quinoa ( Chenopodium quinoa), native to the Andean region of South America, has been recognized as a potentially important crop in terms of global food and nutrition security since it can thrive in harsh environments and has an excellent nutritional profile. 5Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.4Agri-Innovation Center, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan.3Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
2Technology Development Group, Actree Corporation, Hakusan, Japan.1Biological Resources and Post-harvest Division, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Tsukuba, Japan.Takuya Ogata 1, Masami Toyoshima 1, Chihiro Yamamizo-Oda 1†, Yasufumi Kobayashi 1, Kenichiro Fujii 1, Kojiro Tanaka 2, Tsutomu Tanaka 2, Hiroharu Mizukoshi 2, Yasuo Yasui 3, Yukari Nagatoshi 1, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa 4 and Yasunari Fujita 1,5*