Virus-induced gene complementation in tomato.

Virus-induced gene complementation (VIGC), a plant virus technology based on Potato virus X for transient overexpression of endogenous genes complemented tomato mutants, resulting in non-ripening fruits to ripen. This efficient "gain-of-function" approach involves no stable transformation, and reveals a fruit-specific transcriptional network that may exist among key transcription factors in modulating tomato ripening. Thus, VIGC represents a novel and feasible strategy for gene functional analysis in plants.