Common loci for Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Rhizobium meliloti exopolysaccharide synthesis and their roles in plant interactions
The authors isolated approximately 100 analogous EPS-deficient (Exo) mutants of the closely related plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens, including strains whose EPS deficiencies were specifically complemented by each of five cloned, R. meliloti exo loci. They also cloned A. tumefaciens genes which complemented EPS defects in three of the R. meliloti Exo mutants. In two of these cases, symbiotic defects were also complemented. All of the A. tumefaciens Exo mutants formed normal crown gall tumors on four different plant hosts, except ExoC mutants, which were nontumorigenic and unable to attach to plant cells in vitro. Like their R. meliloti counterparts, A. tumefaciens Exo mutants were deficient in production of succinoglycan, the major acidic EPS species produced by both genera. A. tumefaciens ExoC mutants also produced extremely low levels of another major EPS, cyclic 1,2-..beta..-D-glucan. This deficiency has been noted previously in a different set of nontumorigenic, attachment-defective A. tumefaciens mutants.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG06-86ER13532
- OSTI ID:
- 6470558
- Journal Information:
- J. Bacteriol.; (United States), Vol. 169:5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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