Agrobacterium rhizogenes

A bacterium that causes hairy root disease in some plants. Similar to the crown gall disease caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, this is achieved by the mobilization of the bacterial Ri plasmid with the transfer to the plant of some of the genetic material from the plasmid. This process has been used to insert foreign genes into plant cells, but to a lesser extent than the Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation system, because regeneration of whole plants from hairy root cultures is problematical.