The quorum-sensing system AvsR-AvsI regulates both long-chain and short-chain acyl-homoserine lactones in Agrobacterium vitis E26.

Agrobacterium vitis strain E26 is a nonpathogenic bacterium isolated from grape crown gall. In this study, the identification of a luxR-luxI type quorum-sensing system in strain E26 is reported. This system is involved in the induction of hypersensitive response on tobacco, but not its biocontrol activity. The deduced components AvsI(E26) and AvsR(E26) show the greatest similarity to AvsI(F2/5) and AvsR(F2/5), respectively from A. vitis strain F2/5. The mutant in AvsI(E26) abolished the production of both long-chain and short-chain acyl-homoserine lactones signals as well as the ability to cause hypersensitive response on tobacco. Complementaion of avsI (E26) and avsR (E26) genes restored the lost phenotypes to the level of wild type E26. In pot trial, no significant difference on biocontrol efficiency against grapevine crown gall was found between the wide type E26 and its quorum sensing negative mutants.