Utilization of cellobiose and other β-D-glucosides in Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Abstract

Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58 was able to utilize carbon from cellobiose and some other β-D-glucosides as efficiently as from glucose. β-D-glucoside utilization was partially inducible and the induction was subject to catabolite repression by glucose, independently of the presence of cyclic AMP in the medium. It was also independent of Ti plasmid-encoded functions. β-D-glucosides were hydrolysed by a single, cytoplasmic and constitutively expressed β-glucosidase, which was active on non-phosphorylated substrates and insensitive to glucose inhibition.