title: Curing Both Virulent Mega-Plasmids from Bacillus anthracis Wild-Type Strain A16 Simultaneously Using Plasmid Incompatibility.
abstract: Plasmid-cured derivative strains of Bacillus anthracis are frequently used in laboratory studies. Plasmid incompatibility, which does not increase the risk of chromosomal mutation, is a useful method for plasmid curing. However, in bacteria containing multiple plasmids, it often requires the sequential introduction of multiple, specific incompatibility plasmids. This lengthy process renders the traditional plasmid incompatibility method inefficient and mutation-prone. In this study, we successfully cured plasmids pXO1 and pXO2 from B. anthracis A16 simultaneously using only one recombinant incompatible plasmid, pKORT, to obtain a plasmid-free strain, designated A16DD. This method may also be useful for the simultaneous, one-step curing of multiple plasmids from other bacteria, including Bacillus thuringiensis and Yersinia pestis.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Dongshu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Huagui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Erling
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiankai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hengliang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001408:Bacillus anthracis / Q000235:genetics*; D005827:Genetics, Microbial / Q000379:methods*; D010957:Plasmids; D017384:Sequence Deletion
keywords: Bacillus anthracis; pXO1; pXO2; plasmid; plasmid incompatibility