Infiltration of N. benthamiana leaves with Agrobacterium tumefaciens

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Leaf agroinfiltration is a method used in plant biology and biotechnology to induce transient expression of genes in leaf tissue, in order to produce a desired protein. In the method, a suspension of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which contains a plasmid with the gene of interest, is introduced into a plant leaf by direct injection, whereafter the bacteria transfer the desired gene into the plant cells via transfer of T-DNA. The main benefit of agroinfiltration, when compared to the more traditional plant cell transient transformation assays, is the ease of use and speedness, making it the method of choice for testing new constructs for protein engineering.