Use of Geminiviruses as Cloning Vector - One advantage this group of viruses does have is that they contain DNA which, although single stranded, appears to replicate via a double-stranded intermediate, which would make in vivo manipulation in bacterial plasmids more convenient.

The virus group is known to infect a wide range of crop plants, including monocots and dicots. Attempts are underway to develop wheat dwarf geminiviruses as vectors.

The cereal geminivirus, wheat dwarf virus, is under development as a vector for introducing genes into cereals. Although the single chromosome of the wheat dwarf virus is only 2.7 kb long, it is nonetheless capable of accommodating and replicating gene inserts up to about 3 kb in length. In this way the size of the viral DNA may be more than doubled.

Three bacterial genes that have been inserted into the wheat dwarf virus genome have been successfully replicated and expressed after transfer into cultured cells of the cereals Triticum monococcum (one grained spelt) and Zea mays (maize). This illustrates the potential of geminiviruses for serving as the basis of autonomously replicating expression units in plants.