Open AccessThe Agrobacterium tumefaciens virC1 gene product binds to overdrive, a T-DNA transfer enhancer
Author(s) -
Nicolás Toro,
Asis Datta,
Ofira Carmi,
C C Young,
Rabi K. Prusti,
Eugene W. Nester
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.652
H-Index - 246
eISSN - 1067-8832
pISSN - 0021-9193
DOI - 10.1128/jb.171.12.6845-6849.1989
Subject(s) - octopine , biology , agrobacterium tumefaciens , operon , ti plasmid , microbiology and biotechnology , plasmid , footprinting , dna , agrobacterium , gene product , enhancer , gene , escherichia coli , transfer dna , genetics , gene expression , base sequence , transformation (genetics)
In Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a cis-active 24-base-pair sequence adjacent to the right border of the T-DNA, called overdrive, stimulates tumor formation by increasing the level of T-DNA processing. Recent results from our laboratory have suggested that the virC operon which enhances T-DNA processing probably does so because the VirC1 protein interacts with overdrive (N. Toro, A. Datta, M. Yanofsky, and E. W. Nester, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:8558-8562, 1988). We report here the purification of the VirC1 protein from cells of Escherichia coli harboring a plasmid containing the coding sequences of the virC locus of the octopine Ti plasmid. By gel mobility shift and DNase I footprinting assays, we showed that this purified virC1 gene product binds to overdrive but not to the right border of T-DNA.