AUTHOR=Nonaka Satoko , Ezura Hiroshi 

TITLE=Plant–Agrobacterium interaction mediated by ethylene and super-Agrobacterium conferring efficient gene transfer

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2014.00681

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2014.00681

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Agrobacterium tumefaciens</italic> has a unique ability to transfer genes into plant genomes. This ability has been utilized for plant genetic engineering. However, the efficiency is not sufficient for all plant species. Several studies have shown that ethylene decreased the <italic>Agrobacterium</italic>-mediated transformation frequency. Thus, <italic>A. tumefaciens</italic> with an ability to suppress ethylene evolution would increase the efficiency of <italic>Agrobacterium</italic>-mediated transformation. Some studies showed that plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can reduce ethylene levels in plants through 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase, which cleaves the ethylene precursor ACC into α-ketobutyrate and ammonia, resulting in reduced ethylene production. The whole genome sequence data showed that <italic>A. tumefaciens</italic> does not possess an ACC deaminase gene in its genome. Therefore, providing ACC deaminase activity to the bacteria would improve gene transfer. As expected, <italic>A. tumefaciens</italic> with ACC deaminase activity, designated as super-<italic>Agrobacterium</italic>, could suppress ethylene evolution and increase the gene transfer efficiency in several plant species. In this review, we summarize plant–<italic>Agrobacterium</italic> interactions and their applications for improving <italic>Agrobacterium</italic>-mediated genetic engineering techniques via super-<italic>Agrobacterium</italic>.</p>