Ti plasmid

A Ti or tumour inducing plasmid is a circular plasmid that often, but not always, is a part of the genetic equipment that Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes use to transduce its genetic material to plants. The Ti plasmid is lost when Agrobacterium is grown above 28°C. Such cured bacteria do not induce crown galls, i.e. they become avirulent. pTi and pRi share little sequence homology but are functionally rather similar. The Ti plasmids are classified into different types based on the type of opine produced by their genes. The different opines specified by pTi are octopine, nopaline, succinamopine and leucinopine.