Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1988 Aug 11;16(15):7647–7661. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.15.7647

Right-hand border regions of octopine T-DNA are recognized by RNA polymerase of Agrobacterium as well as by VirD1 and VirD2 proteins.

Y Niwa 1, A Yamamoto 1, C Machida 1, I Takebe 1, Y Machida 1
PMCID: PMC338432  PMID: 3412897

Abstract

The T-DNA of octopine Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens contains TL- and TR-DNA regions each bounded by 25 base-pair-repeats (designated A, B, C and D from left to right). Short DNA segments containing the borders B, C and D were found to function as promoter when placed in the rightward orientation upstream of promoter-less lacZ. Promoter consensus sequence of Agrobacterium were found within these border repeats and in their adjacent regions. The expression of lacZ was low when the segments contained the overdrive, a sequence known to enhance T-DNA transfer. Simultaneous overproduction of VirD1 and D2 proteins, endonuclease acting on the border repeats, interfered with the promoter functions of the border segments. In spite of their activity under these conditions, the border regions do not seem to be involved in the gene expression, because they are not followed by appropriate open reading frames. We propose that RNA polymerase of Agrobacterium competes with VirD products for T-DNA borders and thereby affects the transfer of T-DNA.

Full text

PDF
7647

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alt-Moerbe J., Rak B., Schröder J. A 3.6-kbp segment from the vir region of Ti plasmids contains genes responsible for border-sequence-directed production of T region circles in E. coli. EMBO J. 1986 Jun;5(6):1129–1135. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04337.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bolton G. W., Nester E. W., Gordon M. P. Plant phenolic compounds induce expression of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens loci needed for virulence. Science. 1986 May 23;232(4753):983–985. doi: 10.1126/science.3085219. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brosius J. Toxicity of an overproduced foreign gene product in Escherichia coli and its use in plasmid vectors for the selection of transcription terminators. Gene. 1984 Feb;27(2):161–172. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90137-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Casadaban M. J., Cohen S. N. Analysis of gene control signals by DNA fusion and cloning in Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol. 1980 Apr;138(2):179–207. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(80)90283-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Das A., Stachel S., Ebert P., Allenza P., Montoya A., Nester E. Promoters of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti-plasmid virulence genes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Feb 11;14(3):1355–1364. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.3.1355. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jayaswal R. K., Veluthambi K., Gelvin S. B., Slightom J. L. Double-stranded cleavage of T-DNA and generation of single-stranded T-DNA molecules in Escherichia coli by a virD-encoded border-specific endonuclease from Agrobacterium tumefaciens. J Bacteriol. 1987 Nov;169(11):5035–5045. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.11.5035-5045.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Machida Y., Machida C., Ohtsubo H., Ohtsubo E. Factors determining frequency of plasmid cointegration mediated by insertion sequence IS1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jan;79(2):277–281. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.2.277. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Matsumoto S., Takebe I., Machida Y. Escherichia coli lacZ gene as a biochemical and histochemical marker in plant cells. Gene. 1988 Jun 15;66(1):19–29. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(88)90221-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Ohtsubo H., Vassino B., Ryder T., Ohtsubo E. A simple method for shortening a plasmid genome using a system of plasmid cointegration mediated by a Tn3 mutant. Gene. 1982 Dec;20(2):245–254. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90043-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Peralta E. G., Hellmiss R., Ream W. Overdrive, a T-DNA transmission enhancer on the A. tumefaciens tumour-inducing plasmid. EMBO J. 1986 Jun;5(6):1137–1142. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04338.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Porter S. G., Yanofsky M. F., Nester E. W. Molecular characterization of the virD operon from Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Sep 25;15(18):7503–7517. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.18.7503. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rao R. N., Rogers S. G. Plasmid pKC7: a vector containing ten restriction endonuclease sites suitable for cloning DNA segments. Gene. 1979 Sep;7(1):79–82. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(79)90044-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Shaw C. H., Watson M. D., Carter G. H., Shaw C. H. The right hand copy of the nopaline Ti-plasmid 25 bp repeat is required for tumour formation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Aug 10;12(15):6031–6041. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.15.6031. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Siebenlist U., Simpson R. B., Gilbert W. E. coli RNA polymerase interacts homologously with two different promoters. Cell. 1980 Jun;20(2):269–281. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(80)90613-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Slightom J. L., Durand-Tardif M., Jouanin L., Tepfer D. Nucleotide sequence analysis of TL-DNA of Agrobacterium rhizogenes agropine type plasmid. Identification of open reading frames. J Biol Chem. 1986 Jan 5;261(1):108–121. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Stachel S. E., Nester E. W. The genetic and transcriptional organization of the vir region of the A6 Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. EMBO J. 1986 Jul;5(7):1445–1454. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04381.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Stachel S. E., Nester E. W., Zambryski P. C. A plant cell factor induces Agrobacterium tumefaciens vir gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jan;83(2):379–383. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.2.379. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Takeshita S., Sato M., Toba M., Masahashi W., Hashimoto-Gotoh T. High-copy-number and low-copy-number plasmid vectors for lacZ alpha-complementation and chloramphenicol- or kanamycin-resistance selection. Gene. 1987;61(1):63–74. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(87)90365-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Van Haute E., Joos H., Maes M., Warren G., Van Montagu M., Schell J. Intergeneric transfer and exchange recombination of restriction fragments cloned in pBR322: a novel strategy for the reversed genetics of the Ti plasmids of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. EMBO J. 1983;2(3):411–417. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01438.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Veluthambi K., Jayaswal R. K., Gelvin S. B. Virulence genes A, G, and D mediate the double-stranded border cleavage of T-DNA from the Agrobacterium Ti plasmid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Apr;84(7):1881–1885. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.7.1881. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wang K., Herrera-Estrella L., Van Montagu M., Zambryski P. Right 25 bp terminus sequence of the nopaline T-DNA is essential for and determines direction of DNA transfer from agrobacterium to the plant genome. Cell. 1984 Sep;38(2):455–462. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90500-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Yadav N. S., Vanderleyden J., Bennett D. R., Barnes W. M., Chilton M. D. Short direct repeats flank the T-DNA on a nopaline Ti plasmid. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Oct;79(20):6322–6326. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.20.6322. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Yamamoto A., Iwahashi M., Yanofsky M. F., Nester E. W., Takebe I., Machida Y. The promoter proximal region in the virD locus of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is necessary for the plant-inducible circularization of T-DNA. Mol Gen Genet. 1987 Jan;206(1):174–177. doi: 10.1007/BF00326554. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Yanisch-Perron C., Vieira J., Messing J. Improved M13 phage cloning vectors and host strains: nucleotide sequences of the M13mp18 and pUC19 vectors. Gene. 1985;33(1):103–119. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(85)90120-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Yanofsky M. F., Porter S. G., Young C., Albright L. M., Gordon M. P., Nester E. W. The virD operon of Agrobacterium tumefaciens encodes a site-specific endonuclease. Cell. 1986 Nov 7;47(3):471–477. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90604-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES