Plant viruses as vectors for foreign gene expression in plants

Several studies have demonstrated the use of plant viruses as vehicles to introduce and express nonviral genes in plants. Many plant viruses multiply intensely in plants, leading to concomitantly high levels of nonviral gene expression. Plant virus expression vector technology can be improved along severallines. Not all viruses are equally sensitive to sequence manipulations. New vectors and new expression strategies are needed to expand the range of plants inwhich the systems can be used. To increase the carrying capacity or the abilityto express more than one nonviral gene, new vectors should be developed