Combining the CowPEAsy Web Application With in Planta Agroinfiltration for Native Promoter Validation in Vigna unguiculata.

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important protein source in Sub-Saharan Africa. Optimizing resilience and productivity through genetic engineering in cowpea has been slow due in part to a lack of defined species-specific regulatory elements and difficulty testing gene function within the native system. In many plant species, Agrobacterium-mediated transient gene expression is widely used to validate constructs before investing in transgenic lines, but its implementation in legumes has been challenging.