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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1986 Sep;83(18):6935–6939. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.18.6935

Complementation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens tumor-inducing aux mutants by genes from the TR-region of the Ri plasmid of Agrobacterium rhizogenes

I A Offringa *, L S Melchers *, A J G Regensburg-Tuink *, P Costantino †, R A Schilperoort *, P J J Hooykaas *,‡
PMCID: PMC386625  PMID: 16593762

Abstract

In this paper we provide information indicating that the agropine-type root-inducing (Ri) plasmid pRi1855 of Agrobacterium rhizogenes contains functional genes for auxin production (aux) in the right transferred DNA (T-DNA) region (TR-region). These genes were cloned and introduced into the T-region of the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmids of mutants of Agrobacterium tumefaciens carrying an aux mutation. Depending on the Ri aux gene present, the oncogenicity of the Ti aux-1 and/or aux-2 mutations was restored, showing that the Ri aux genes are able to complement the Ti aux genes. Agrobacterium strains with an agropine-type Ri plasmid not only cause hairy root on certain plant species, but they also induce tumors on other plant species. In this paper it is shown that a mutation in either of the aux genes in the Ri plasmid leads to a total loss of tumorigenicity and a strongly diminished rhizogenicity of the host bacterium, revealing that the aux genes are important for tumor and root induction. Agrobacterium strains containing the TR-region but not the TL (left)-region of the Ri plasmid are still tumorigenic on certain plant species but are no longer capable of hairy-root induction.

Keywords: hairy root disease, phytohormones

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