Transcriptional silencing of 35S driven-transgene is differentially determined depending on promoter methylation heterogeneity at specific cytosines in both plus- and minus-sense strands.

Background: De novo DNA methylation triggered by short interfering RNAs is called RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) through RdDM can be induced using a viral vector. We have previously induced RdDM on the 35S promoter in the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing Nicotiana benthamiana line 16c using the cucumber mosaic virus vector.