Abstract
The ability to select genes to knock out of mycobacterial genomes has greatly improved our understanding of mycobacteria. This chapter describes a method for doing this. The gene (including a 1-kb flanking region) is cloned into a pNIL series vector and disrupted by deletion or insertion of a cassette. A selection of marker genes obtained from the pGOAL series of vectors are inserted into the pNIL vector to create a suicide delivery system. This delivery vector is introduced into mycobacteria where the disrupted version of the gene replaces the wild-type version by a two-step homologous recombination process. The method involves selecting for a single crossover event followed by selection of double crossovers. Single crossovers have incorporated plasmid marker genes and are sucroseS, kanamycinR and blue on media containing X-gal. Double crossovers have lost plasmid markers and are sucroseR, kanamycinS and white on media containing X-gal.
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Kendall, S.L., Frita, R. (2009). Construction of Targeted Mycobacterial Mutants by Homologous Recombination. In: Parish, T., Brown, A. (eds) Mycobacteria Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 465. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-207-6_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-207-6_20
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