Agrobacterium tumefaciens: a Transformative Agent for Fundamental Insights into Host-Microbe Interactions, Genome Biology, Chemical Signaling, and Cell Biology

Agrobacterium tumefaciens incites the formation of readily visible macroscopic structures known as crown galls on plant tissues that it infects. Records from biologists as early as the 17th century noted these unusual plant growths and began examining the basis for their formation. These studies eve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of bacteriology 2023-04, Vol.205 (4), p.e0000523-e0000523
Main Authors: Brown, Pamela J B, Chang, Jeff H, Fuqua, Clay
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Agrobacterium tumefaciens - genetics
Bacteria
Bacteriology
Biology
Cell interactions
Crown gall
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Genomes
Host Microbial Interactions
Microbiology
Microorganisms
Minireview
Pathogenesis
Plant bacterial diseases
Plant diseases
Plant Diseases - microbiology
Plant tissues
Plant Tumors - microbiology
Plants - microbiology
Special Series: The History of Microbial Model Systems
Toxins
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Summary:Agrobacterium tumefaciens incites the formation of readily visible macroscopic structures known as crown galls on plant tissues that it infects. Records from biologists as early as the 17th century noted these unusual plant growths and began examining the basis for their formation. These studies eventually led to isolation of the infectious agent, A. tumefaciens, and decades of study revealed the remarkable mechanisms by which A. tumefaciens causes crown gall through stable horizontal genetic transfer to plants. This fundamental discovery generated a barrage of applications in the genetic manipulation of plants that is still under way. As a consequence of the intense study of A. tumefaciens and its role in plant disease, this pathogen was developed as a model for the study of critical processes that are shared by many bacteria, including host perception during pathogenesis, DNA transfer and toxin secretion, bacterial cell-cell communication, plasmid biology, and more recently, asymmetric cell biology and composite genome coordination and evolution. As such, studies of A. tumefaciens have had an outsized impact on diverse areas within microbiology and plant biology that extend far beyond its remarkable agricultural applications. In this review, we attempt to highlight the colorful history of A. tumefaciens as a study system, as well as current areas that are actively demonstrating its value and utility as a model microorganism.
ISSN:0021-9193
1098-5530
DOI:10.1128/jb.00005-23