posted Fri 28 Dec 2001 08:25 AM                 

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_1711000/1711492.stm

It has to be one of the cleverest lifeforms on the planet - and scientists have just been given the best handle yet on its inner workings.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a microbe that infects plants; it gives them tumours that start producing the chemicals on which the microbe likes to feed.

The bacterium can gorge itself on this nutrient supply because it has evolved the unique ability to transfer DNA into plants and change their behaviour - a skill that has led some to dub it the "natural genetic engineer".

Researchers have hijacked A. tumefaciens to make plants do more useful things than just turn themselves into microbial dinner tables. The bacterium has helped plant scientists create new crops that grow larger, are resistant to disease and even produce drugs in their leaves.
And such modifications should become easier and more sophisticated now that the complete genetic code of A. tumefaciens itself has been cracked.

Unusual genome

"It's a tricky little bug," said Dr Steve Slater, from Cereon Genomics, who led the decoding project. "It causes the plant to make a safe home for it and then engineers the plant to feed it," he told BBC News Online.

A. tumefaciens has about 5,500 genes distributed on two circular structures known as plasmids and on two larger chromosomes - one of these is also circular; the other is linear in shape. This arrangement is quite unusual in bacteria.

This is the only case in nature where DNA and proteins from bacteria are transferred into plants or animals
Eugene Nester, University of Washington

"The thing I think is really astounding is that the genes are expressed in the plant cell; the bacterium is carrying around genes that have transcriptional control elements that are eukaryotic-type - are plant-type. It's really amazing."
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 posted Sat 29 Dec 2001 09:34 PM                 

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Originally posted by AlterEgo:
that's really interesting.
the article mentioned getting drugs from leaves... i know a few plants that already do that
i wouldnt be surprised to hear that pieter grows a couple in his back yard.

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 posted Sun 30 Dec 2001 10:54 AM                 

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Originally posted by AlterEgo:
that's really interesting.
the article mentioned getting drugs from leaves... i know a few plants that already do that
i wouldnt be surprised to hear that pieter grows a couple in his back yard.

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 posted Sun 30 Dec 2001 09:26 PM                 

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Originally posted by Pieter:
don't you know that BC has the best pot in the world? that's what they tell me at least, I've seriously never tried it

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