Characterization and host range determination of soybean super virulent Agrobacterium tumefaciens KAT23

Agrobacterium tumefaciens KAT23 isolated from peach root causes crown gall disease in a number of grain legume plants, including the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and soybean (Glycine max). KAT23 caused tumor formation in each of these plants more effectively than strain C58. Biotype determination suggested that this strain is biotype II. KAT23 was able to utilize nopaline as a carbon source. Partial sequence analysis indicated that KAT23 harbors a nopaline-type Ti plasmid, designated pTiKAT23, which was highly homologous with other nopaline-type Ti plasmids (pTiC58 and pTiSAKURA). KAT23 transferred not only the T-DNA of the Ti plasmid but also introduced T-DNA of the binary vector efficiently. The common bean inoculated with KAT23 (pIGFP121-Hm) showed crown galls, and some plants showed beta-glucuronidase (GUS) and sGFP (S65T) gene expression. This virulent ability of KAT23 indicates its potential application to legumes, especially to soybean transformation.