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An Agrobacterium catalase is a virulence factor involved in tumorigenesis
Author(s) -
Xu Xiu Q.,
Pan Shen Q.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2958.2000.01709.x
Subject(s) - agrobacterium tumefaciens , biology , virulence , catalase , agrobacterium , pathogen , microbiology and biotechnology , secretion , effector , virulence factor , plant defense against herbivory , bacteria , gene , genetics , oxidative stress , transformation (genetics) , biochemistry
Most plant pathogenic bacteria adopt the type III secretion systems to secrete virulence factors and/or avirulence gene products, which trigger the plant hypersensitive response (HR) and the oxidative burst with hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) as the main component. However, the soil‐borne plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens uses the type IV secretion pathway to deliver its oncogenic T‐DNA that causes crown gall tumours on many plant species. A. tumefaciens does not elicit a typical HR on those plants. Here, we report that inactivation of one of A. tumefaciens catalases (which converts H 2 O 2 to H 2 O and O 2 ) by a transposon insertion highly attenuated the bacterial ability to cause tumours on plants and to tolerate H 2 O 2 toxicity, but not the bacterial viability in the absence of exogenous H 2 O 2 . This provides the first genetic evidence that the Agrobacterium –plant interaction involves a plant defence response, such as H 2 O 2 production, and that catalase is a virulence factor for a plant pathogen.