Chemotactic movement and attachment of Agrobacterium tumefaciens to bananacells and tissues

For the elaboration of efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of b anana the initial steps in the plant-bacterium interaction were investigate d. Chemotaxis of agrobacteria towards tissues was studied using a swarm aga r plate system. Excised leaf, rhizome, root and in vitro proliferating tiss ues from different banana landraces were found to be able to elicit a posit ive chemotactic reaction of A. tumefaciens that could be enhanced by extens ive wounding. Agrobacterium attachment was examined by UV fluorescence micr oscopy and scanning electron microscopy, which demonstrated the presence of bacteria individually bound or massively attached to the surface of single banana cells and tissues. It can be concluded that at least during the two early steps of interaction A. tumefaciens appears to be compatible with ba nana, indicating the potential for genetic transformation.