VIEW ARTICLE

Techniques

Use of Polymerase Chain Reaction to Detect Pathogenic Strains of Agrobacterium. L. -C. Dong, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mississippi State University, Box BB, Mississippi State 39762; C.-W. Sun(2), K. L. Thies(3), D. S. Luthe(4), and C. H. Graves, Jr.(5). (2)(4)Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mississippi State University, Box BB, Mississippi State 39762. (3)(5)Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Science, Mississippi State University, Drawer PG, Mississippi State 39762. Phytopathology 82:434-439. Accepted for publication 2 December 1991. Copyright 1992 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-82-434.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a sensitive tool for the identification of specific regions of DNA present in small quantities, was used to detect the presence of T-DNA in 34 Agrobacterium strains from Vitis spp. Oligonucleotide primers, homologous to T-DNA regions from a wide and a narrow host range strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, were used to amplify portions of the T-DNA. In most cases the PCR results confirmed pathogenicity tests using detached leaves from Agrobacterium-free muscadine plants and DNA slot blot hybridization.