Endoparasitic sedentary nematodes infecting plant roots are an important problem of modern agriculture. In a compatible interaction with their hosts, cyst nematodes use stylet for mechanical root penetration. The specialized nematode oesophageal glands produce and secrete proteins that facilitate the migration within the root and change morphogenetic program of plant cells. The changes in selected initial cell involve cell cycle reactivation, cell wall modification and boosting of plant primary and secondary metabolism.

One method of determining the function of genes is a morphological, cytological and molecular comparative analysis of plant phenotypes obtained after the construction of the gene causing gene silencing or its overexpression. In this paper, an overview of the current state of knowledge concerning gene silencing with regard to its suitability for the study of gene function.

In the past few years a substantial progress in the identification of genes involved in the embryo development. These studies were based mainly on the analysis of mutant embryonic model plant? Arabidopsis thaliana. Of great importance in the study of the genetics of embryonic development are revealing mutations in the early stages of embryogenesis, especially those in which embryonic development is arrested at a specific stage. Analysis of such mutants allowed us to know and understand the mechanisms of genetic regulation of embryogenesis.