发布: 2018年07月05日第8卷第13期 DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2922 浏览次数: 7036
评审: Modesto Redrejo-RodriguezAdison WongAlba Blesa
Abstract
Natural competence can be activated in Lactoccocus lactis subsp lactis and cremoris upon overexpression of ComX, a master regulator of bacterial competence. Herein, we demonstrate a method to activate bacterial competence by regulating the expression of the comX gene by using a nisin-inducible promoter in an L. lactis strain harboring either a chromosomal or plasmid-encoded copy of nisRK. Addition of moderate concentrations of the inducer nisin resulted in concomitant moderate levels of ComX, which led to an optimal transformation rate (1.0 x 10-6 transformants/total cell number/g plasmid DNA). Here, a detailed description of the optimized protocol for competence induction is presented.
Keywords: Natural competence (自然感受态)Background
Natural competence is the process in which a bacterium acquires exogenous DNA via a specialized uptake machinery after which the internalized DNA is either integrated into its genome or maintained as plasmid DNA. Several bacteria enter a state of competence upon specific environmental triggers such as genotoxic stress or starvation (Seitz and Blokesch, 2013; Blokesch, 2016). Quorum sensing systems such as comCDE or comRS control the activation of natural competence in Gram positive bacteria (Håvarstein et al., 1995; Pestova et al., 1996; Kleerebezem et al., 1997b; Fontaine et al., 2015). More specifically, comC and comS encode pheromones, whereas comD encodes a histidine kinase and comE and comR encode response regulators (Håvarstein et al., 1995; Pestova et al., 1996; Fontaine et al., 2010; Fontaine et al., 2015). In streptococci, the activated regulator drives transcription of the alternative sigma factor ComX, which in turn, activates transcription of competence genes that encode the proteins encompassing the DNA uptake machinery (Johnston et al., 2014). Previously, strategies employing overexpression of ComX led to the successful introduction of exogenous DNA in Streptococcus thermophilus (Blomqvist et al., 2006) and L. lactis (David et al., 2017; Mulder et al., 2017), even though different approaches were employed to achieve its overexpression. These studies also showed that different expression levels of comX critically impact on transformation rates. For example, in our work we used L. lactis subsp. lactis KF147, a strain that allows Nisin-Controlled gene Expression system (NICE) (Mierau and Kleerebezem, 2005) and harbors chromosomal nisRK (essential to allow nisin induction) but does not produce nisin. In this strain, we introduced pNZ6200, a vector containing comX under the control of the nisin-inducible nisA promotor, by electro-transformation, and the resulting strain was not transformable upon full comX induction (2 ng/ml nisin), whereas optimal transformation rates (1.0 x 10-6 transformants/total cell number/g plasmid DNA) were observed upon moderate levels of induction (0.03 ng/ml nisin) (Mulder et al., 2017). Moreover, we also demonstrated that applying the same strategy worked for a nisRK derivative of L. lactis subsp. lactis IL1403, whereas competence induction in L. lactis subsp. cremoris KW2 required prior transformation of the strain with pNZ9531 that expresses nisRK (Kleerebezem et al., 1997a) to allow nisin induced expression of comX. In order to assess whether other L. lactis strains can become naturally competent, we hereby provide a method containing all details of the competence protocol as described previously (Mulder et al., 2017) that can assist other scientists to unleash competence in the L. lactis strain of their interest and might prevent experimental issues concerning nisin induced expression of ComX. This newly developed protocol is expected to allow genetic access in a broad panel of L. lactis strains with an efficiency that enables rapid-one-step construction of gene replacement mutants via integration of linear DNA fragments harboring an antibiotic resistance marker flanked by chromosomal homologous DNA regions.
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文章信息
版权信息
© 2018 The Authors; exclusive licensee Bio-protocol LLC.
如何引用
Mulder, J., Wels, M., Kuipers, O. P., Kleerebezem, M. and Bron, P. A. (2018). Induction of Natural Competence in Genetically-modified Lactococcus lactis. Bio-protocol 8(13): e2922. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2922.
分类
微生物学 > 微生物遗传学 > 转化
分子生物学 > DNA > 转化
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