A gene essential for Agrobacterium virulence is homologous to a family of positive regulatory loci

Abstract

The vir region of Agrobacterium tumefaciens spans at least six transcriptional loci required for crown gall tumorigenesis. The transcriptional induction of two of these vir loci in response to cocultivation with tobacco suspension cells was measured by using bacteria containing mutations in each of the six vir loci located on the Ti plasmid. Induction of these vir genes occurred only in bacteria that had functional copies of virA and virG. The nucleic acid sequence of a 1.25-kilobase clone encompassing virG contains one open reading frame capable of coding for a protein of about 30,000 daltons. The amino acid sequence of the predicted virG product is homologous to that of eight bacterial proteins, including that of the ompR gene of Escherichia coli. Most, although not all, of these proteins, like VirG, are positive regulatory elements.