High-CO₂ Requirement as a Mechanism for the Containment of Genetically Modified Cyanobacteria.

ABSTRACT: As researchers engineer cyanobacteria for biotechnological applications, we must consider potential environmental release of these organisms. Previous theoretical work has considered cyanobacterial containment through elimination of the CO₂-concentrating mechanism (CCM) to impose a high-CO₂ requirement (HCR), which could be provided in the cultivation environment but not in the surroundings. In this work, we experimentally implemented an HCR containment mechanism in Synechococcus sp. strain PCC7002 (PCC7002) through deletion of carboxysome shell proteins and showed that this mechanism contained cyanobacteria in a 5% CO₂ environment. We considered escape through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and reduced the risk of HGT escape by deleting competence genes. W

SUBMITTER: Clark RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5793877 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature