The complete nucleotide sequence of the TL-DNA of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens plasmid pTiAch5.

We have determined the complete primary structure (13 637 bp) of the TL-region of Agrobacterium tumefaciens octopine plasmid pTiAch5 . This sequence comprises two small direct repeats which flank the TL-region at each extremity and are involved in the transfer and/or integration of this DNA segment in plants. TL-DNA specifies eight open-reading frames corresponding to experimentally identified transcripts in crown gall tumor tissue. The eight coding regions are not interrupted by intervening sequences and are separated from each other by AT-rich regions. Potential transcriptional control signals upstream of the 5' and 3' ends of all the transcribed regions resemble typical eukaryotic signals: (i) transcriptional initiation signals ('TATA' or Goldberg- Hogness box) are present upstream to the presumed translational start codons; (ii) ' CCAAT ' sequences are present upstream of the proposed 'TATA' box; (iii) polyadenylation signals are present in the 3'-untranslated regions. Furthermore, no Shine-Dalgarno sequences are present upstream of the presumed translational start codons.