Transfer of Agrobacterium DNA to Plants Requires a T-DNA Border but not the virE Locus
Abstract
Agrobacterium tumefaciens induces tumors in plants by transferring and integrating oncogenes (T-DNA) into the chromosomes of host plant cells. Agrobacterium strains were used to transfer complementary DNA copies of a potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTV) to plant cells at a wound site on tomato plant stems. Subsequently, infectious viroid RNA was found in the leaves of these plants, indicating systemic PSTV infection. This process utilized the T-DNA transfer mechanisms of Agrobacterium since PSTV infection required most virulence genes (vir) as well as one of the DNA sequences that flank either side of the Agrobacterium T-DNA. However, transfer still occurred from virE mutants of Agrobacterium, strains that fail to induce tumors even though a completely functional T-DNA is present. The virE gene seems to be directly involved in the integration of foreign DNA into plant chromosomes.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- February 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.231.4739.725
- Bibcode:
- 1986Sci...231..725G