What is the difference between agroinfiltration and agroinfection?

Agroinfiltration and agroinfection refer to methods of gene delivery in plants that produce transient expression.

In agroinfiltration, Agrobacterium tumefaciens is often used. Agrobacterium has a tumor-inducing plasmid, part of which is transferred into plant cells as transfer DNA (T-DNA). There are two methods of agroinfiltration: syringe infiltration, which involves injecting Agrobacterium through a small cut on the leaf, or vacuum infiltration, which involves submerging leaves in a medium containing Agrobacterium and then subjecting the sample to a vacuum.

While agroinfiltration involves non-viral gene delivery, agroinfection, on the other hand, entails delivering infectious viral genes to plants. This is also done through incorporation into T-DNA. RNA viruses are commonly used due to their high replication rate in plants.