AGROBACTERIUM VERSUS THE GENE GUN
Nowadays there are various methods available to genetically modify plants.
The best known method is through using the soil bacteria Agrobacteriumtumefaciens’
natural DNA transfer mechanism. This bacterium infects
certainhost
plants and inserts a part of its bacterial DNA into the plant’s
cells during the infection process. The bacterial DNA is stably incorporated
into the plant DNA and carries the information necessary for the synthesis
of nopines, with which Agrobacterium can feed itself. It is one of evolution’s
most intriguing tricks: a bacterium that forces a plant to produce its food by
inserting the necessary information (‘the menu’) into the plant’s DNA. During the
1970’s molecular biologists realized the possibility presented by this infection
process, to use Agrobacterium as a DNA delivery service. When a piece
of bacterial DNA (that would normally be inserted into the plant) is replaced with information that we want to insert, then
Agrobacterium will transfer our desired information to the plant.