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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2017, Vol. 16 Issue (12): 2761-2771    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(17)61702-7
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Geminiviruses and their application in biotechnology
YANG Qiu-ying, DING Bo, ZHOU Xue-ping
State Key Laboratory for Plant Diseases and Insect Pest, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R.China
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Abstract  Being a major class of single-stranded DNA viruses, geminiviruses are mostly studied due to their catastrophic infectious effect on crops.  These DNA viruses are characteristic for their ability in quickly multiplying viral genetic materials without integrating into the genome of plants, which makes them ideal for developing viral vectors for plants bioengineering.  Geminivirus-derived vectors can be classified into expression vectors and virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) vectors.  Details of the design, construction, application and improvements of these geminivirus vectors are summarized and discussed.  
Keywords:  geminivirus        virus-based vectors        expression vectors        VIGS vectors        biotechnology  
Received: 26 April 2017   Accepted:
Fund: 

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31672006 and 31390422).

Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence ZHOU Xue-ping, Tel: +86-10-62815906, E-mail: zzhou@zju.edu.cn   
About author:  YANG Qiu-ying, Tel: +86-10-62816620, E-mail: qyyang@ippcaas.cn

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YANG Qiu-ying, DING Bo, ZHOU Xue-ping. 2017. Geminiviruses and their application in biotechnology. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 16(12): 2761-2771.

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