Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the causal agent of Crown Gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of dicot. It is a rod shaped, gram negative bacteria (Smith et al., 1907). Symptoms are caused by the insertion of a small segment of DNA (known as the T-DNA, for 'transfer DNA') into the plant cell, which is incorporated at a semi-random location into the plant genome.
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Noun
1. the bacteria that produce crown gall disease in plants
(hypernym) bacteria species
(member-holonym) Agrobacterium, genus Agrobacterium

A soil bacterium that causes a cancer-like plant disease (crown gall) in dicotyledenous plants (all agricultural crops except cereals). It contains the Ti plasmid. The tumor induction ability of the bacterium spreads to neighboring cells via the plasmid.

A bacterial plant pathogen, commonly found in soil, that contains a plasmid used to introduce desired sections of DNA into plants.