Methods for the genetic manipulation of marine bacteria

Publication date: Available online 26 March 2018 Source:Electronic Journal of Biotechnology Author(s): Zahraa Zeaiter, Francesca Mapelli, Elena Crotti, Sara Borin Genetic manipulation of bacteria is a procedure necessary to obtain new strains expressing peculiar and defined genetic determinants or to introduce genetic variants responsible for phenotypic modifications. It can be applied to explore the biotechnological potential associated to environmental bacteria and to exploit the functional properties of specific genes when inserted in an appropriate host. In the last years, marine bacteria have received an increasing attention, since they represent a fascinating reservoir of genetic and functional diversity exploitable to fuel the bioeconomy sector. However, there is an urgent need to deeply investigate and improve the genetic manipulation tools applicable to marine strains, since the paucity of the knowledge in this regard. This review aims to describe genetic manipulation methods hitherto used in marine bacteria, highlighting the limiting factors of the different techniques available today in order to increase manipulation efficiency. In particular, we focus on natural and artificial transformation (especially electroporation) and conjugation, since they have been successfully applied to several marine strains. Finally, we emphasize that, to avoid failures, future work should be done to establish tailored methodologies for marine bacteria.
Source: Electronic Journal of Biotechnology - Category: Biotechnology Source Type: research