High-throughput functional screening of plant and pathogen genes in planta

Understanding of molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity of Agrobacterium and plant viruses has allowed us to utilize these pathogens as efficient vectors for transgene expression in plants. These vectors are now employed for high-throughput overexpression screening of plant and pathogen genes in planta. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) has become one of indispensable tools for functional analysis of genes. VIGS is also suitable for high-throughput screening of plant genes. In this review, we describe: (1) vector-mediated transient expression techniques; (2) high-throughput overexpression screening of pathogen genes, of which products elicit hypersensitive response (HR) on host plants; (3) high-throughput overexpression screening of plant genes that are related to HR-like cell death; and (4) high-throughput VIGS screening of plant genes necessary for HR.