Description
The intention of these gene expression analysis was to study host responses to an infection with Agrobacterium tumefaciens at different stages of crown gall development. Therefore the transcriptome of infected inflorescence stalk tissue and mature crown galls of Arabidopsis thaliana (WS-2) was determined of three different time points. These were compared with the transcriptome of mock-infected inflorescence stalk tissue (reference) of the same age. The following time points were analyzed: (i) three hours post inoculation, before the T-DNA is integrated into the host genome (ii) six days after inoculation when the T-DNA is present in the nucleus and the oncogenes are expressed in the host cell, and (iii) 35 days after inoculation when a mature tumors has developed. For the three-hour- (3hpi) and six-day- time point (6dpi) plants were infected with the virulent strain C58, harboring a T-DNA, or with strain GV3101, containing a disarmed Ti-plasmid. This allows discrimination between signals which derive from the bacterial pathogen and the T-DNA encoded oncogenes.