Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) offers a rapid and high throughout technology platform for the analysis of gene function in plants. The barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) VIGS system was optimized in studies silencing phytoene desaturase expression in wheat, and demonstrated that infection with BSMV construct carrying a 412 bp fragment of TaRAR1 caused conversion of incompatible to compatible interactions to Lr24-mediated resistance in wheat TcLr24 and cultivar 5R615 harboring Lr24 whereas infection with a control construct had no effect on resistance or susceptibility. RTPCR analysis showed that BSMV-induced gene silencing could be detected at mRNA levels. These studies indicated that TaRAR1 was a required component for Lr24-mediated race-specific resistance and the BSMV-VIGS was a powerful tool for dissecting the genetic pathways of disease resistance in hexaploid wheat.