Agrobacterium

The Agrobacterium genus comprises several Gram-negative phytopathogenic bacterial species. These bacteria, closely related to the mutualistic plant-associated Rhizobium species, induce neoplastic growths in a wide range of host-plant species by transferring a segment of their own DNA into the genome of the host cell. Whereas Agrobacteriums host range is naturally limited to dicotyledonous plants, under laboratory conditions it is known to extend to all plants as well as fungi, yeast, and human-cultured cells. This unique ability of Agrobacterium to transfer DNA to eukaryotic hosts is widely used to generate transgenic organisms for fundamental and applied research as well as an experimental system to study the basic biology of genetic transformation of eukaryotic cells.