Morphological and proteic modifications in Nicotiana tabacum L. transformed by Agrobacterium rhizogenes were evaluated by the comparison of normal and transformant plants regenerated from hairy-roots formed by the strains A4 or IB-642 of A. rhizogenes. Changes in apical dominance were observed in IB-642 transformants, which exhibited an abnormal development of axiliary buds. The electrophoretic analysis indicated an increase in peroxidase activity and the induction of several isozymes of this complex in the transformants. The SDS-PAGE patterns comparison allows to identify several changes, specially, the increase in 31-33 and 54 kD polypeptides in the transformants.. Biochemical analysis suggests the induction of a pathogen or stress like response of the transformants due to the high auxin concentration codified by A. rhizogenes T-DNA incorporated to the plant genome.
genetic transformation; Agrobacterium rhizogenes; Nicotiana tabacum; electrophoretic analysis
