PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Agrobacterium tumefaciens incites the formation of readily visible macroscopic structures known as crown galls on plant tissues that it infects. Records from biologists as early as the 17th century noted these unusual plant growths and began examining the basis for their formation. These studies eventually led to isolation of the infectious agent, A. tumefaciens, and decades of study revealed the remarkable mechanisms by which A. tumefaciens causes crown gall through stable horizontal genetic transfer to plants. This fundamental discovery generated a barrage of applications in the genetic manipulation of plants that is still under way. As a consequence of the intense study of A. tumefaciens and its role in plant disease, this pathogen was developed as a model for the study of critical processes that are shared by many bacteria, including host perception during pathogenesis, DNA transfer and toxin secretion, bacterial cell-cell communication, plasmid biology, and more recently, asymmetric cell biology and composite genome coordination and evolution. As such, studies of A. tumefaciens have had an outsized impact on diverse areas within microbiology and plant biology that extend far beyond its remarkable agricultural applications. In this review, we attempt to highlight the colorful history of A. tumefaciens as a study system, as well as current areas that are actively demonstrating its value and utility as a model microorganism.
摘要：
根癌农杆菌会在其感染的植物组织上引起容易可见的宏观结构的形成，称为冠gall。早在17世纪，生物学家的记录就注意到了这些不寻常的植物生长，并开始研究它们形成的基础。这些研究最终导致了感染因子的分离，A.根癌，几十年的研究揭示了根癌通过稳定的水平遗传转移到植物中引起冠胆的显着机制。这一基本发现在植物的遗传操作中产生了一系列仍在进行中的应用。由于对根癌农杆菌及其在植物病害中的作用的深入研究，这种病原体被开发为研究许多细菌共有的关键过程的模型，包括发病过程中的宿主感知，DNA转移和毒素分泌，细菌细胞间通讯,质粒生物学,最近，不对称细胞生物学和复合基因组协调和进化。因此，根癌的研究对微生物学和植物生物学的不同领域产生了巨大的影响，远远超出了其显着的农业应用。在这次审查中,我们试图强调根癌的丰富多彩的历史作为一个研究系统，以及当前正在积极展示其作为模型微生物的价值和效用的领域。
