A. tumefaciens is a soil-dwelling bacterium that transforms normal plant cells into tumor-forming cells by inserting a piece of bacterial DNA (the transfer, or "T," DNA) into the plant cell genome. The Ti plasmid also carries many of the transfer functions for mobilizing the T-DNA. This article provides a brief discussion of the principles of T-DNA transformation, including consideration of T-DNA vectors and their hosts.

Protocol: Vectors and Agrobacterium Hosts for Arabidopsis Transformation Protocol