Molecular Biology of Plant Tumors

Molecular Biology of Plant Tumors provides an opportunity to learn in detail about the latest insights into the mechanism of transformation of plant cells by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The study of the molecular mechanism responsible for the crown gall phenomenon (induced by Agrobacterium tumefaciens) illustrates the point that the fundamental study of the cause(s) and mechanism(s) of abnormal growth might be one of the most efficient ways to understand cellular differentiation and the molecular basis of gene expression. The book is organized into three parts that contain research on abnormal plant growth, crown gall tumors, and potential vectors for genetic engineering in agriculture. The genetic structure responsible for the neoplasmic transformation of plant cells in crown galls is a bacterial plasmid (called Ti for tumor-inducing). Research described in this volume demonstrates that these Ti plasmids were designed by evolution as natural gene vectors with which some bacteria can introduce active genes into plants. These transferred genes are maintained by integration in the plant genome and their expression is directly or indirectly responsible for the tumorous growth pattern.