The natural transformation of the soil bacteria Pseudomonas stutzeri and Acinetobacter sp. by transgenic plant DNA strictly depends on homologous sequences in the recipient cells.
The nptII(+) gene present in the genome of transgenic potato plants transforms naturally competent cells of the soil bacteria Pseudomonas stutzeri and Acinetobacter BD413 (both harboring a plasmid with an nptII gene containing a small deletion) with the same high efficiency as nptII(+) genes on plasmid DNA (3x10(-5)-1x10(-4) transformants per nptII(+)) despite the presence of a more than 10(6)-fold excess of plant DNA. However, in the absence of homologous sequences in the recipient cells the transformation by nptII(+) dropped by at least about 10(8)-fold in P. stutzeri and 10(9)-fold in Acinetobacter resulting in the latter strain in < or =1x10(-13) transformants per nptII(+). This indicated a very low probability of non-homologous DNA fragments to be integrated by illegitimate recombination events during transformation.
de Vries
J
J
Genetik, Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Oldenburg, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany.
Meier
P
P
Wackernagel
W
W
D000150:Acinetobacter / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D017343:Genes, Plant; D019868:Kanamycin Kinase / Q000235:genetics*; D007613:Kanamycin Resistance / Q000235:genetics; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000235:genetics*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D018744:DNA, Plant; D019868:Kanamycin Kinase