The invention relates to a method for identifying and validating plant targets for agrochemicals, comprising the steps of determining gene or protein expression profiles in function of the progression of an essential biological process in a plant subsequent downregulation of expression of said gene or protein in a plant cell. More particularly, the effects of downregulation of the candidate target gene were directly monitored on plants locally infected with a vector mediating viral induced gene suppression in that infected plant area. The invention also relates to isolated plant genes encoding proteins involved in plant growth and development. The invention also relates to plants tolerant to agrochemicals such as herbicides or pesticides.
