Figure 2.

AGO2-mediated silencing of Tomato bushy stunt virus RNA in Nicotiana benthamiana. Plants were agroinfiltrated to express Tobacco rattle virus (TRV) as a virus-induced gene silencing vector containing either no insert (00-control) or an AGO2 fragment (AGO2-silenced). At ~40 days post-infiltration, upper leaves of these plants were infiltrated to express TBSV–GFP (TG) or TBSV–GFP devoid of P19 translation (TGdP19); images of leaves were captured 5 days later under UV illumination. Evidently when AGO2 expression is silenced, GFP expression from TGdP19 (only infiltrated in one half of the leaf) is maintained indicating the absence of effective silencing when compared to that in the 00-control. Details can be found in Scholthof et al. (2011), that also describes the eventual complete abolishment of GFP expression in TGdP19-infected 00-control plants at later time points, while expression in AGO2-silenced plants is maintained stably.