Question

Which one of the following bacterium has extensive usage in Genetic Engineering work in
plants?
(A) Clostridium septicum (B) Xanthomonas citri
(C) Bacillus coagulens (D) Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Answer 1

The answer is (D) Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This soil bacterium is known to cause disease specifically what they call the crown gall disease on plants. But it has become an important tool for genetic engineering because of its ability to transfer DNA between itself and plants.

Answer 2

Thanks for the question!

The correct answer is (D) Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is nature's genetic engineer. It is a gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria. It consists of both linear and circular chromosome. Its genome has  5.7 million base-pairs and has the inherent ability to integrate into the DNA of plant hosts.

It has become the most used method for the introduction of foreign genes into plant cells and the subsequent regeneration of transgenic plants. It is the most popular vector till date. The genetic material that is introduced is called T-DNA (transferred DNA) which is located on a Ti plasmid. A Ti plasmid is a circular piece of DNA found in almost all bacteria.

The advantages of using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation over other transformation methods are:

1. reduction in transgene copy number

2. intact and stable integration of the transgene (newly introduced gene) into the plant genome