Agrobacterium Edit
Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a type of bacteria that transfers its DNA via horizontal gene transferto create tumors in plants. This makes it very useful to genetic engineering. Gene transfer using it happens when “a restriction enzyme is used to cut non-virulent plasmid DNA derived from A. tumefaciens and thus create an insertion point, into which the gene can be ligated. The engineered plasmid is then put into a strain of A. tumefaciens, which contains a ‘helper’ plasmid and plant cells are treated with the recombinant bacterium” in culture.[2] While this looks like a complicated concept, it is really only a genetic engineering version of cut and paste