Abstract
The first step in Agrobacterium tumefaciens infection of plants is the establishment of cell–cell contact between the two partners. However, failure to establish such contact makes many plants and explants recalcitrant to A. tumefaciens infection. Tea is one such example where even the popular inducer, acetosyringone failed to facilitate A. tumefaciens infection due to the presence of high amounts of bactericidal/bacteriostatic polyphenols. Quinones are formed as a result of polyphenols oxidation. They cause tissue browning and necrosis during the process of transformation, and in turn prevent A. tumefaciens infection. Compounds such as polyphenol adsorbents, i.e., polyvinylpyrrolidone and charcoal, and antioxidants like cysteine and ascorbic acid were screened to overcome tissue browning. Although these compounds enhanced the growth of A. tumefaciens, these failed to facilitate the infection of the leaves of either Kangra Jat, Tocklai Variety-1, UPASI-9, UPASI-10, and Stock-449 cultivars of tea. On the contrary, the presence of filter sterilized l-glutamine and l-glutamic acid in the co-cultivation medium facilitated successful A. tumefaciens infection of recalcitrant tea leaves. l-Glutamine and glutamic acid form harmless adducts by binding to quinones. Therefore, their presence in the co-cultivation medium allowed the tea leaves to remain living and appealing to the infecting A. tumefaciens. Successful A. tumefaciens infection of tea leaves was confirmed by positive signals in GUS assay, PCR, and Dot blot.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hamilton, C. M., Frary, A., Lewis, C., & Tanskley, S. D. (1996). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 93, 9975–9979.
Koncz, C., Martini, N., Mayerghofer, R., Koncz-Kalman, Z., Korber, H., Redei, G. P., & Schell, J. (1989). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 86, 8467–8471.
Ingelbrecht, I., Breyne, P., Vancomperonolle, A., van Montagu, J. M., & Depicker, A. (1991). Gene, 109, 239–242.
Shaw, C. H. (1991). Bio Essays, 13, 25–29.
Kumar, N. (2003). M.Sc. Thesis, Himachal Pradesh Krishi Viswavidyalay, Palampur, India
Kumar, N., Pandey, S., Bhattacharya, A., & Ahuja, P. S. (2004). Journal of Biosciences, 29, 309–317.
Chakrabarty, R., Viswakarma, N., Bhat, S. R., Kirti, P. B., Singh, B. D., & Chopra, V. L. (2002). Journal of Biosciences, 27, 495–502.
Das, D. K., Reddy, M. K., Upadhyaya, K. C., & Sopory, S. K. (2002). Plant. Cell Reports, 20, 999–1005.
Dada Kuta, D., & Tripathy, L. (2005). African Journal of Biotechnology, 4, 752–757.
Hatanaka, A., Kajiwara, T., Sekiya, J., & Kido, Y. (1977). Phytochemistry, 16, 1828–1829.
Bhattacharya, A., Sood, P., & Citovsky, V. (2010). Molecular Plant Pathology, 11, 705–719.
Biao, X., Toru, K., Jian, X., & Yongyan, B. (1998). American Society of Plant Physiology (Plant Biol) Abstr No: 314
Sandal, I., Saini, U., Lacroix, B., Bhattacharya, A., Ahuja, P. S., & Citovsky, V. (2007). Plant Cell Reports, 26, 169–176.
Vancanneyt, G., Schmidt, R., O’Connor-Sanchez, A., Willmitzer, L., & Rocha-Sosa, M. (1990). Molecular Genetics and Genomics, 220, 245–250.
Murashige, T., & Skoog, F. A. (1962). Physiologia Plantarum, 15, 473–497.
Jefferson, R. A. (1987). Plant Molecular Biology Reports, 5, 389–405.
Doyle, J. J., & Doyle, J. L. (1990). Focus, 12, 13–15.
Huang, L. C., Li, Y. L., Huang, B. L., Kuo, C. I., & Shaw, J. F. (2002). In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology. Plant, 38, 358–365.
Li, Z. T., Dhekney, S., Dutt, M., Van Amman, M., Tattersali, J., Kelley, K. T., & Gray, D. J. (2006). In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology. Plant, 42, 220–227.
Sandal, I., Bhattacharya, A., Saini, U., Kaur, D., Sharma, S., Gulati, A., Kumar, J. K. K., Kumar, N., Dayma, J., Das, P., Singh, B., & Ahuja, P. S. (2011). BMC Chemical Biology, 11, 1–13.
Dŏgan, S., Turan, P., Dŏgan, M., Alkan, M., & Arslan, O. (2007). European Food Research and Technology, 225, 67–73.
Gulati, A., Rajkumar, S., Karthigeyan, S., Sud, R. K., Vijayan, D., Thomas, J., Rajkumar, R., Das, S. C., Tamuly, P., Hazarika, M., & Ahuja, P. S. (2009). Chemistry and Biodiversity, 6, 1042–1052.
Kaiser, D. (2006). Prokaryotes, 1, 221–245.
Acknowledgments
The author thank Dr. P.S. Ahuja, Director, CSIR-IHBT for providing the necessary facility for carrying out this work. Nitish Kumar also acknowledges the financial assistance from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, N., Gulati, A. & Bhattacharya, A. l-Glutamine and l-Glutamic Acid Facilitate Successful Agrobacterium Infection of Recalcitrant Tea Cultivars. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 170, 1649–1664 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-013-0286-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-013-0286-z