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Allorhizobium vitis

Allorhizobium vitis
Scientific classification
Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Proteobacteria
Class: Alphaproteobacteria
Order: Rhizobiales
Family: Rhizobiaceae
Genus: Allorhizobium
Species: A. vitis
Binomial name
Allorhizobium vitis
(Ophel and Kerr 1990) Mousavi et al. 2015
Synonyms
  • Agrobacterium vitis Ophel and Kerr 1990
  • Rhizobium vitis (Ophel and Kerr 1990) Young et al. 2001

Allorhizobium vitis is a plant pathogen that infects grapevines. The species is best known for causing a tumor known as crown gall disease. One of the virulent strains, A. vitis S4, is responsible both for crown gall on grapevines and for inducing a hypersensitive response in other plant species. Grapevines that have been affected by crown gall disease produce fewer grapes than unaffected plants. Though not all strains of A. vitis are tumorigenic, most strains can damage plant hosts.

A. vitis shares many genetic and morphological characteristics with several Agrobacterium species, including A. tumefaciens. The two species have overlapping host ranges, and both A. vitis and A. tumefaciens may reduce the yield of infected crops. For this reason, research on A. vitis focuses on transmission and methods of control.

A. vitis is a Gram-negative bacterium with a thin peptidoglycan layer in its cell wall. The species is aerobic and mesophilic, with individual cells that are rod-shaped and motile. On culture, colonies are round, white, and translucent.

The presence of A. vitis has been confirmed in Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, and the United States. Crown gall disease outbreaks in Europe and North America in the mid-1980s have been linked to A. vitis, and the species has continued to survive in those regions. Additionally, a survey conducted in China from 2003-2009 identified strains of A. vitis on blighted banana plants.

The genome of A. vitis consists of two circular chromosomes and five plasmids. It is 6.32 Mb long and encodes 5549 proteins. Four rRNA operons have been identified. Tumorigenic strains contain a Ti plasmid (pTi). Ti plasmids in galls produce various opines that are then secreted from the gall. In a vitis, pTi codes for octopine and/or cucumopine. Tumorigenic strains also contain a plasmid that allows the bacterium to utilize tartrate.


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