Transformation of environmental Bacillus subtilis isolates by transiently inducing genetic competence.

ABSTRACT: Domesticated laboratory strains of Bacillus subtilis readily take up and integrate exogenous DNA. In contrast, "wild" ancestors or Bacillus strains recently isolated from the environment can only be genetically modified by phage transduction, electroporation or protoplast transformation. Such methods are laborious, have a variable yield or cannot efficiently be used to alter chromosomal DNA. A major disadvantage of using laboratory strains is that they have often lost, or do not display ecologically relevant physiologies such as the ability to form biofilms. Here we present a method that allows genetic transformation by natural competence in several environmental isolates of B. subtilis. Competence in these strains was established by expressing the B. subtilis competence transcription fact

SUBMITTER: Nijland R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2838798 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature