FtsZ and FtsA are essential for cell division in Escherichia coli and colocalize to the septal ring. One approach to determine what regions of FtsA and FtsZ are important for their interaction is to identify in vivo interactions between FtsA and FtsZ from different species. As a first step, the ftsA genes of Rhizobium meliloti and Agrobacterium tumefaciens were isolated and characterized. In ad...

Paradox (Juglans hindsii × J. regia), the dominant rootstock used in California, USA walnut production, has many desirable horticultural characteristics, but is highly susceptible to crown gall. Crown gall, caused by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, is not consistently controlled with soil fumigation. This observation, in conjunction with observations of galls occurring in above ground ...

To investigate the effects of two cadmium-tolerant bacteria, Staphylococcus pasteuri (S. pasteuri X1) and Agrobacterium tumefaciens (A. tumefaciens X2), on cadmium uptake by the cadmium hyperaccumulator plant Beta vulgaris var. cicla L., a pot experiment with artificially contaminated soil was conducted. The results demonstrated that both cadmium-tolerant bacteria enhanced the dry weight of Bet...

When coresident with the Ti (tumor-inducing) plasmid, the 21-kDa product of the osa gene of the plasmid pSa can suppress crown gall tumorigenesis incited by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Neither T-DNA processing nor vir (virulence) gene induction is affected by the presence of osa in the bacterium. We used Arabidopsis thaliana root segments and tobacco leaf discs to demonstrate that Osa inhibits A...

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated genetic transformation of plants is the first example of transkingdom gene transfer and had been considered the only known natural example of such a case until the recent discovery of Bartonella henselae-mediated transformation of human cells under laboratory conditions (Schröder et al., 2011). In nature, the pathogenic soil bacterium A. tumefaciens induces ne...

We have achieved efficient transformation system for forage-type tall fescue plants by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Mature seed-derived embryogenic calli were infected and co-cultivated with each of three A. tumefaciens strains, all of which harbored a standard binary vector pIG121Hm encoding the neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPTII), hygromycin phosphotransferase (HPT) and intron-containing β-g...

A coupled transcription-translation system was isolated from A. tumefaciens. Expression of plasmids pBR322 and pKT212 from E.coli, cloned fragments of Ti plasmid (plasmids pSS155 and pSS156) and Ti plasmid derivatives pAL2802, pAL2811, pAL2821 and pAL2832 was analysed in an A. tumefaciens cell-free system and compared with their expression in an E.coli cell-free system. New proteins of 41K and ...

SUMMARY Agrobacterium tumefaciens tumorigenesis is initiated by the horizontal transfer of a suite of oncogenes that alter hormone synthesis and sensitivity in infected plant cells. Transgenic plants silenced for the iaaM and ipt oncogenes are highly recalcitrant to tumorigenesis, and present a unique resource to elucidate fundamental questions related to Agrobacterium biology and post-transcri...

Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58 is a Gram-negative soil bacterium capable of inducing tumors (crown galls) on many dicotyledonous plants. The genome of A. tumefaciens strain C58 was re-annotated based on the Z-curve method. First, all the 'hypothetical genes' were re-identified, and 29 originally annotated 'hypothetical genes' were recognized to be non-coding open reading frames (ORFs). Th...

Phosphatidylcholine (PC), or lecithin, is the major phospholipid in eukaryotic membranes, whereas only 10% of all bacteria are predicted to synthesize PC. In Rhizobiaceae, including the phytopathogenic bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, PC is essential for the establishment of a successful host-microbe interaction. A. tumefaciens produces PC via two alternative pathways, the methylation pathw...