American Society for Microbiology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 7(80), p. 2299-2306, 2014
DOI: 10.1128/aem.00084-14
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In this study, we developed a gene disruption system for Thermococcus barophilus using simvastatin for positive selection and 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA) for negative selection or counterselection to obtain markerless deletion mutants using single-and double-crossover events. Disruption plasmids carrying flanking regions of each targeted gene were constructed and introduced by transformation into wild-type T. barophilus MP cells. Initially, a pyrF deletion mutant was obtained as a starting point for the construction of further markerless mutants. A deletion of the hisB gene was also constructed in the UBOCC-3256 (Delta pyrF) background, generating a strain (UBOCC-3260) that was auxotrophic for histidine. A functional pyrF or hisB allele from T. barophilus was inserted into the chromosome of UBOCC-3256 (Delta pyrF) or UBOCC-3260 (Delta pyrF Delta hisB), allowing homologous complementation of these mutants. The piezophilic genetic tools developed in this study provide a way to construct strains with multiple genetic backgrounds that will allow further genetic studies for hyperthermophilic piezophilic archaea.