Proteomics of a plant pathogen: Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is an important plant pathogen which belongs to the α-proteobacteria. In addition, it has served as the main tool for plant molecular genetics. Here we focus on three major aspects: (i) proteomic mapping, (ii) the use of proteomics for the understanding of the response of A. tumefaciens to changes in environmental conditions and (iii) the analysis of the changes in genome expression following interaction with the host. These studies convey a global outlook on the functional genomics of A. tumefaciens and help to understand the physiology of this important organism.