Summary
We have developed a microenvironmental system consisting of glass columns filled with quartz-rich chemically pure sea sand. The columns were percolated with medium. Using this system, we have determined parameters affecting adsorption and desorption of DNA to sand. Adsorbed DNA was shown to be more resistant to degradation by DNase I than free DNA. With DNA adsorbed to sand highly efficient homologeous transformation of Bacillus subtilis was obtained, exceeding transformation frequencies of standard liquid transformation by 25 to 50 fold. Furthermore, the accumulation of cells at sand grains resulted in up to 16% transformed cells at a temperature (23°C) suboptimal for transformation. It is also shown that the transformation process in sand is 10 fold more resistant to DNase I and 100 to 1000 fold more resistant to low temperatures (7°C) than transformation in liquid culture. The results show that persistance of DNA and gene transfer by genetic transformation are facilitated at the surface of mineral grains.
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Lorenz, M.G., Wackernagel, W. (1988). Impact of Mineral Surfaces on Gene Transfer by Transformation in Natural Bacterial Environments. In: Klingmüller, W. (eds) Risk Assessment for Deliberate Releases. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73419-9_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73419-9_13
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