Why is Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation described as Natural Genetic engineering in plants?
The Agrobacterium tumefaciens-interceded plant genetic transformation measure requires the presence of two genetic segments situated on the bacterial Ti-plasmid. Basically, the main basic part is the T-DNA, which is characterized by conserved 25-base pair imperfect repeats at the closures of the T-region known as a border sequence. The tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid is used as a cloning vector to transfer the desired gene into plants as they insert a part of their DNA in plants during the infection. The second is the virulence (vir) region, which is made out of in any event seven significant loci (virA, virB, virC, virD, virE, virF, and virG) encoding parts of the bacterial protein machinery which is mediating the T-DNA processing and transfer. The gene of interest is attached to the T-DNA so that it automatically gets transformed into plant cells thus, Agrobacterium tumefacien is known as the “Natural Genetic Engineer” of plants.
