Engineering viral expression vectors for plants: the 'full virus' and the 'deconstructed virus' strategies

Abstract

Plant viral vectors are being successfully developed and exploited for the industrial-scale expression of heterologous proteins and as a research tool for studies of gene expression. The initial engineering strategy (the 'full virus' vector strategy) aimed to design a vector that was essentially a wildtype virus, which was modified to carry and express a heterologous sequence that encoded a gene of interest. The new emerging trend (the 'deconstructed virus' vector strategy) reflects an ideology that recognises the inherent limitations of the viral process. It attempts to 'deconstruct' the virus, by eliminating functions that are limiting or undesired, and to rebuild it, either by delegating the missing necessary functions to the host (which is genetically modified to provide those functions) or by replacing them with analogous functions that are not derived from a virus.