Translocation and exudation of tumor metabolites in crown galled plants

Crown gall tumors are induced on susceptible plants by pathogenic strains of Agrobacterium. These neoplastic plants cells produce metabolites, called opines, which provide a source of nutrients to colonizing agrobacteria. Opine production previously has been shown to influence microbial communities in the immediate vicinity of the tumor. We have obtained evidence for opine translocation to and exudation from distal uninfected regions of the plant host. Grafted plants made from an opine-producing transgenic scion with a wild-type stock, or with a wild-type scion and an opine-producing stock accumulate opines in the wild-type portions of the plant. Moreover, opines were detected in root, stem, and leaf tissues of nontransgenic plants on which stem crown galls had been induced by pathogenic strains of Agrobacterium. These plants exuded opines from their roots as a component of their root exudates. Translocation of opines from the tumor to other parts of the plant, and their exudation from roots, indicates that these biologically active compounds are available to opine-catabolizing microbes that have not induced the tumors but are present in the rhizosphere or on portions of the plant distant from the site of the gall.