Agrocins and the biological control of crown gall.

Agrocin 84 is a plasmid-encoded, fraudulent adenine nucleotide antibiotic responsible for the preventative biological control of the plant cancer, crown gall. It has bacteriocin-like selectivity which is dependent on a Ti-plasmid-encoded permease in pathogenic agrobacteria. Other nucleotide agrocins have been described and partially characterized; more may be confidently predicted.