Tumor Formation in Plants

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses tumor formation in plants. Plant tumors may be caused by bacteria, by viruses, or by inherent genetic traits. The use of plant tissues to study tumorigenesis complements investigations of transformed animal cells. The tumorigenic transformation is associated with the presence of a small segment of the Ti plasmid in the plant cell. The area of genetic tumors may also have ramifications concerning gene regulation in plants and perhaps in animals. Current work is aimed at the development of systems in which the addition of one chromosome from one plant species to the genome of another will cause tumor formation. The development of this simple system may facilitate the analysis of genetic tumors on a molecular level.