Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) full-length DNA was amplified by PCR and cloned into a bacterial plasmid. The cloned TYLCV DNA was excised from the plasmid, ligated and the resulting monomeric circular double-stranded TYLCV DNA was used to inoculate tomato (Solanum lycopersicom) and datura (Datura stramonium) plants by particle bombardment. The bombarded plants produced typical disease symptoms, similar to those produced following whitefly-mediated inoculation, albeit 5-7 days later than whitefly-inoculated plants. The success rate of inoculating tomato plants by particle bombardment averaged 37%, whereas with datura plants, it averaged 85%. With whitefly-mediated inoculation of TYLCV, the success rate of inoculation was also higher in datura plants than in tomato plants. Bombardment of datura plants with a linear form of TYLCV DNA also resulted in viral infection, with an inoculation success rate similar to that with the closed-circular TYLCV DNA. Bombarding datura plants with the bacterial plasmid containing the cloned TYLCV DNA did not result in viral infection, but bombardment with a bacterial plasmid containing a cloned dimer of TYLCV DNA yielded an infection rate of 50-100%. This is the first report of TYLCV inoculation of plants using particle bombardment of a cloned monomeric linear or closed-circular form of TYLCV double-stranded DNA.