Crown Gall Induced by a Natural Isolate of () Containing a Tumor-Inducing Plasmid.

Crown gall disease in plants is caused by "Agrobacteria", bacteria belonging to the family, which carry a tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid. Unexpectedly, we found evidence that a natural isolate from a rose crown gall, called NBC51/LBA8980, was a bacterium that did not belong to the family. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that this bacterium contained three large DNA circles with rRNA and tRNA genes, representing one chromosome and two chromids, respectively, and two megaplasmids, including a Ti plasmid. Average nucleotide identity (ANIb, ANIm) and genome-to-genome distance (GGDC) values above the thresholds of 96% and 70%, respectively, showed that NBC51/LBA8980 belonged to the species ( Its Ti plasmid was almost identical to certain succinamopine Ti plasmids previously identified in strains, suggesting that this Ti plasmid may have been recently acquired by NBC51/LBA8980 in the tumor environment.