Patent Application: US-201214126344-A

Abstract:
the invention relates to a method for isolating a microorganism containing a known genetic element . the method employs several rounds of 1 ) dilution of a mixed culture containing the selected microorganism in several replicates , 2 ) growing the replicates , 3 ) detecting the organism in at least one of the replicates and repeating steps 1 ) through 3 ) until the organism can be isolated by standard procedures .

Description:
the present invention pertains to a method for isolating a selected microorganism from a mixed culture of microorganisms without the need for marker based selection techniques , such as antibiotic resistance marker genes . a mixed culture of microorganisms is a population of microorganisms where the individual microorganisms within the population differ with respect to a known consecutive sequence of at least 15 nucleic acid base pairs in their dna ( e . g . chromosomal or plasmid dna molecules ). the population of microorganisms in the mixed culture comprises a selected microorganism . a selected microorganism is a specific microorganism present within the mixed culture of microorganisms , wherein cells of the specific microorganism comprise one or more nucleic acid molecule ( e . g . chromosomal or plasmid dna ), and wherein the molecule comprises a known consecutive sequence of at least 15 nucleic acid base pairs ( or nucleotides ) that are not present in cells of the other microorganisms in the culture . cells of the specific microorganism can be selected from the mixed culture of microorganisms , by selecting for a microorganism cell comprising this at least 15 consecutive nucleic acid base pairs . the specific microorganism can also be selected from the mixed culture of microorganisms , by selecting for a microorganism cell comprising at least two nucleic acid molecules comprising at least 15 nucleic base pairs , and wherein the at least two molecules are comprised within a larger nucleic acid molecule comprising 50 to 10 , 000 nucleic acid base pairs , preferably 150 to 3 , 000 nucleic acid base pairs and even more preferably 150 to 1500 nucleic acid base pairs . the isolation of the selected microorganism present in a mixed culture of microorganisms using the method of the invention is particularly suitable where the frequency of the selected microorganism in the mixed culture is less than 10 − 3 . the method of the invention is also suitable where the frequency of the selected microorganism in the mixed culture is 10 − 4 , 10 − 5 , 10 − 6 , 10 − 7 or lower . this method for isolating a selected microorganism employs a surprisingly effective technique that is schematically represented in table 1 . in table 1 each tube illustrates a container , wherein the microorganism is grown . this container could also be a well in a microtitre plate or any other enclosed space containing a liquid growth medium . growth medium , in liquid form , is used to culture the mixed culture of microorganisms and dilutions of this culture . the growth medium serves to support growth of the microorganisms , and the composition of the medium is adapted to provide all essential nutrients required for the growth of the respective microorganism . the method does not rely on , nor requires , that the growth medium selectively promotes the growth of the specific microorganism to be selected , and hence can be a non - selective growth medium . in ( a ) a tube is shown comprising a mixed culture of microorganisms , wherein the culture comprises a selected microorganism . in step ( b ) the mixed culture is diluted by consecutive transfer into liquid growth medium . the number of dilutions will depend on the cell density of the mixed culture , but typically dilutions ranging from 10 − 2 - 10 − 9 are contemplated ; more typically a dilution range extending down to 10 − 6 is suitable . the dilution factor is preferably 1 : 10 , although smaller or greater dilution factors are contemplated . it is both contemplated and sufficient that each dilution of the mixed culture is represented by one dilution culture . the diluted cultures in step ( b ) are then incubated until sufficient cell mass is obtained for the subsequent detection step . the incubation conditions employed to support growth of the microorganism are adapted to meet the growth requirements of the respective microorganism . selection of growth temperature , supply of air for aerobic growth , or non - aerobic growth conditions , shaking conditions are all optimized to support growth based on the known growth requirements of the respective microorganism . the period of incubation is selected based on the growth rate of the respective microorganism , but will normally continue until the growth medium no longer provides conditions suitable for growth of the organism e . g . if the growth medium nutrients are exhausted . the detection step is used to detect the presence of the one or more nucleic acid molecule , that comprises a known consecutive sequence of at least 15 nucleic acid base pairs , and that is unique to the selected microorganism in one or more of the dilutions of the mixed culture . it is contemplated that the detection step is performed on at least two , and preferably more than two of the dilutions of the mixed culture prepared and cultivated in step ( b ), where each dilution to be screened is represented by one dilution culture . the nucleic acid detection method will normally be optimized for the respective microorganism . release of nucleic acid molecules ( dna ) from a cell for the purpose of dna detection normally requires cell disruption or cell permeabilisation . preferably total dna is extracted from a sample of each dilution culture . methods for detection of the one or more nucleic acid molecule that is unique to the selected microorganism include polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ) employing nucleic acid primers that can specifically amplify the one or more nucleic acid molecule . other methods of nucleic acid molecule detection include hybridization with dna probes that hybridize specifically with the nucleic acid molecule or its complementary strand . suitable methods for dna extraction and dna detection by pcr or hybridization are detailed in standard textbooks e . g . molecular cloning a laboratory manual [ 17 ] the dna detection step serves to identify which dilutions comprise the selected microorganism . the frequency of said selected microorganism in said mixed culture is determined by dividing the dilution of the dilution culture where the said microorganism can be detected by the dilution of the most dilute sample in the dilution series where growth of the mixed microbial culture is observed . the culture originating from the most diluted sample of the mixed culture in which the one or more nucleic acid molecule unique to the selected microorganism is detected is named p . the culture originating from the least diluted sample of the mixed culture in which the one or more nucleic acid molecule unique to the selected microorganism can no longer be detected is named n . the dilution factor between the diluted samples from which p and n originate is named d , where d is greater than 1 , and will preferably be 10 ; and the total dilution factor for obtaining culture n relative to the undiluted mixed culture is dt . in step ( c ) between 2 and 500 replications of dilution culture n ( starting from p and having the dilution factor dt ) are made in growth medium in order to increase the probability of finding the selected microorganism in at least one of these replicates . if dilution culture n originates from a 10 - fold dilution of the diluted sample from which p originates , at least 10 - 20 replicates will be made of dilution culture n . the replicates of dilution culture n are allowed to grow in step ( d ) until sufficient cell mass is obtained for the subsequent detection step ( e ). typically , the replicates will be grown under the same conditions as in step ( b ) to give approximately the same cell density as the cell culture from which the dilution was made ( p ). the presence of the one or more nucleic acid molecule that is unique to the selected microorganism is then detected in the replicate cultures of n , step ( e ). only a fraction of the replicate dilution cultures of n will contain the nucleic acid molecule of the selected microorganism . however , in the cultures where the nucleic acid molecule of the selected microorganism is now detected , the frequency of the selected microorganism relative to other organisms in the culture will be higher . if for example the selected microorganism is detected in two out of 20 cultures , the frequency of the selected microorganism will now be approximately 10 fold higher than in the dilution culture ( p ) from which the dilutions were made . in step ( f ), a replicate dilution culture of n , in which the selected microorganism is detected , is then used as culture p for performing a new step ( c ) in a secondary cycle of dilution and selection . this cycle will be repeated until the frequency of the selected microorganism is greater than 10 − 3 , preferably 10 − 2 or even more preferably higher than 10 − 1 . the number of repetitions of steps ( c ) to ( f ) is generally at least 1 , but is more likely to require 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 or 6 or more repetitions , where after the selected microorganism can then be isolated from a replicate dilution culture ( n ) comprising the selected microorganism , by using standard techniques for single cell colony isolation such as plating on solid growth medium , incubation and growth of single cell colonies followed by detection of the one or more nucleic acid molecule of the selected microorganism . the method of the invention has the major and surprising advantage that it reduces the number of screening experiments from screening of thousands of isolated cells to screening of a few hundred . the method can be used to isolate a selected microorganism characterized by the deletion of a nucleic acid sequence ( e . g . gene deletion mutant ) or by the insertion of a nucleic acid sequence ( e . g . gene insertion mutant ). the method can also be used to isolate a selected microorganism characterized by containing a natural unique nucleic acid sequence which is not present in other microorganisms in the mixed culture . the method is suitable for any microorganism capable of single cell growth in liquid culture , in particular bacterial and fungal ( e . g . yeast ) cells capable of single cell growth . the method is particularly useful for making marker - free deletions or insertions in extremophiles such as : the acidophilic archaea sulfolobales , thermoplasmatales , arman ( archaeal richmond mine acidophilic nanoorganisms ), acidianus brierleyi , a . infernus and metallosphaera sedula , and the acidophilic bacteria acidobacterium and acidithiobacillales , thiobacillus prosperus , thiobacillus acidophilus , thiobacillus organovorus , thiobacillus cuprinus and acetobacter aceti . the alkaliphilic bacteria geoalkalibacter ferrihydriticus , bacillus okhensis , and alkalibacterium iburiense the halophilic archaea belonging to the family of halobacterium and halophilic bacterium halobacterium halobium and chromohalobacter beijerinckii . the hyperthermophilic archea methanopyrus kandleri , pyrolobus fumarii , pyrococcus furiosus , and the hyperthermophilic bacterium geothermobacterium ferrireducens , and aquifex aeolicus . thermophilic bacteria belonging to the bacillus stearothermophilus species and the thermoanaerobacter genus . the method is particularly useful for isolating microbial cells which produce a product for which no selection procedure exist e . g . cells producing chemical building blocks such as : acids ( such as maleic -, aspartic -, malonic -, propionic -, succinic -, fumaric -, citric -, acetic -, glutamic -, itaconic -, levulinic -, acotinic -, glucaric -, gluconic -, and lactic - acid ), amino acids ( such as serine , lysine , threonine ), alcohols ( ethanol , butanol , propanediol , butanediol , arabitol ) or other high value products ( such as acetoin , furfural , and levoglucosan ), or cells which produce an enzyme in amounts that is insufficient for a selection procedure . the method is particularly useful for isolating microbial cells which are present in the mixed culture of microorganisms at a frequency which is insufficient for detection of the activity of an expressed microbial enzyme . a method of the invention solves the problem of how to isolate a selected microorganism without the need for any form of marker gene for selection purposes , and without the need to introduce genes into the microorganism to be selected such as a complete gene , [ 18 ] a heterologous recombinase , an antibiotic resistance marker , a plasmid or a transposon into the selected microorganism . the following materials and methods were applied in the examples below : enzymes and reagents : if not stated otherwise enzymes were supplied by mbi fermentas ( germany ) and used according to the suppliers recommendations . pcr - conditions were ( 15sec / 15sec / 15sec ) x25 at temperatures ( 94 ° c ./ 60 ° c . / 72 ° c .). the products were amplified in a techne pcr machine with fermentas dreamtaq polymerase in pcr buffer ( 160 mm ( nh 4 ) 2 so 4 ; 670 mm tris - hcl ( ph 8 . 8 ); 0 . 1 % tween - 80 , 1 mm cresol red , 0 . 125 , 0 . 125m ficoll 400 ). gel electrophoresis : pcr results were evaluated on the basis of agarose gel electrophoresis using biorad subcell equipment . gels were run at 80v in 1 % agarose for 20 - 30 minutes . visualization was done by casting ethidium bromide ( 0 . 5 μg / ml ) into the gels roll tube isolation : hungate roll tubes [ 19 ] were used to isolate axenic cultures from solid surface cultivations . isolations were transferred to liquid ba media [ 20 ]. matrix screening of multiple samples : to establish a system for screening multiple samples simultaneously , pooling of samples was used . 20 samples were arranged in a matrix of 4 columns ( a - d )× 5 rows ( 1 - 5 ). 400 μl from each sample ( each column , a through d ) were pooled into a single tube , and dna from the mixture was used as pcr template . individual samples from a column resulting in positive pcr were extracted and pcr amplified . thermoanaerobacter strain bg10 is deposited with dsmz ( dsmz — deutsche sammlung von mikroorganismen and zellkulturen gmbh , mascheroder weg 1b , 38124 braunschweig ) under deposit number 23015 . all microbial strains were cultured at 70 ° c . anaerobically in minimal medium ( ba ) with 2 g / l yeast extract as in unless otherwise stated . for solid medium , roll tubes containing ba medium with 11 g / l phytagel and additional 3 . 8 g / l mgcl 2 . 6h 2 o was used ., escherichia coli top10 ( invitrogen , usa ) was used for cloning purposes . top10 was routinely cultivated at 37 ° c . in luria - bertani medium [ 17 ] supplemented with 100 μg / ml ampicillin when needed . the ldh gene was deleted from the thermoanaerobacter bg10 wt strain ( dsm 23015 ) by homologuous recombination as described in [ 13 ] to generate ldh deficient strain bg10xl . the dna fragment used for insertion of the parm - ext fragment into the lactate dehydrogenase region of bg10xl genome was cloned in the vector p3del - parv2 - k13 , shown in fig1 , and contains : 1 ) a dna fragment upstream of the l - ldh gene of bg10 , amplified using primers 2 ) a non - coding parm - ext fragment used solely for identification , amplified using 3 ) a dna fragment downstream of the l - ldh gene of bg10 , amplified using primers the p3del - parv2 - k13 vector was amplified in e . coli gm2163 ( cgsc 6581 ) and isolated using midi - size preparation ( nucleobond ) as described in [ 21 ]. 1 . 4 linearization of the vector - p3del - parv2 - k13 comprising the parm - ext insertion cassette quantification of the vector prior to digestion was carried out using an eppendorf biophotometer , using the built in “ dna ds quantification ”. 50 μl vector p3del - parv2 - k13 was digested using restriction enzyme ndel in a 100 μl reaction using 5 μl ndel fast digest enzyme . digestion was carried out over night ( on ) at 37 ° c . in fermentas fast digest buffer . linearization was verified on a 0 . 7 % agarose gel . 100 μl ndel digested vector (˜ 10 μg / μl ) ( p3del - parm - ext ) was cooled to 0 ° c . and mixed with 100 μl fully grown culture thermoanaerobacter bg10xl . the mixture was transferred to pre - cooled growth media , and incubated at 70 ° c . for 16 hours . subsequent to transformation and 16 hours incubation , four consecutive cultivation steps were applied using an inoculum of 1 %. consecutive transfers were implemented to eliminate a false positive signal originating from the ndel digested transformation template rather than from the actual targeted inserted fragment . pcr - conditions applied in the screening procedure were : denaturing at 94 ° c . ( 15 s ), annealing at 60 ° c . ( 15 s ), elongation at 72 ° c . ( 15 s ). the pcr cycle was repeated 25 times in a techne progene pcr machine . polymerase used was dreamtaq polymerase ( fermentas ) and primers used in the screening were ; parm - ext - fw3 ([ seq id no : 7 ] 5 ′- ggc aat aca gcg acg tta atg - 3 ′) parm - ext - re ([ seq id no : 8 ] 5 ′- ccc ccc tgc agc gtt gct tca gat agt tat tat ctt ttc tg - 3 ′). 1 . 7 detection and isolation of marker free thermoanaerobacter bg10xl transformed with parm - ext insertion cassette the following steps were then performed to isolated and identify a thermoanaerobacter bg10xl , transformed with parm - ext insertion cassette . starting from the fully grown culture obtained immediately after the fourth transfer had successfully been completed , an initial 10 - fold dilution series were set up in growth medium and incubated under the same growth conditions ( table 2 ). growth was detected in cultures diluted up to 10 − 9 . dna was isolated from each of the cultures , followed by pcr screening for the presence of the parm - ext fragment . the fragment was only detected in dilutions from 10 − 1 to 10 − 4 . 20 replicates of 10 − 5 dilutions of the same culture ( where the parm - ext fragment was not detectable ) were prepared , and incubated over night to obtain fully grown cultures . four mixtures , each containing five individual dilution replicates ( in total 20 ) were analyzed by pcr for the presence of the par - m - ext sequence ( fig2 ). as seen fig2 , at least two out of four mixtures ( composed of pooled 10 − 5 dilution cultures ) contained parm - ext ( 5cm and 5dm ). further analysis of the individual five cultures from mixture 5dm revealed that one out of four individual cultures in the 5cm mixture contained the inserted parm - ext sequence ( 5c1 , fig3 ). the fully grown culture 5c1 was used to make 20 dilution cultures each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 6 with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 5c1 ). the cultures were then grown overnight . again , the presence of the parm - ext fragment was analyzed in mixtures of pooled samples of the 10 − 6 dilution cultures and was subsequently identified in the single cultures 6d1 , 6d2 and 6d4 ( fig4 ). tube 6d4 was used to set up 20 dilution cultures , each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 7 with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 6d4 ), and the cultures were allowed to grow overnight . the presence of the parm - ext fragment was identified in culture 7d5 as seen in fig5 . 7d5 was used to make 20 dilution cultures , each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 8 fold with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 7d5 ), which were allowed to grow over night . the presence of the parm - ext fragment was identified in culture 8a5 as seen in fig6 . 8a5 was used to make 20 dilution cultures , each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 9 fold with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 8a5 ), which were allowed to grow . the presence of the parm - ext fragment was identified in culture 9a2 as seen in fig7 . from 9a2 , roll tubes were prepared in order to isolate pure cultures with a parm - ext genomic insertion . after two days of incubation , 5 single colonies were picked from hungate roll tubes and incubated in each 10 ml of liquid medium . two out of five monocultures contained the parm - ext fragment . the correct insertion of the parm - ext fragment [ seq id no : 9 ] was verified using primers in regions upstream and downstream of the lactate dehydrogenase . the resulting pcr positive cultures were checked by pcr using primers annealing outside the region used for homologous recombination . in this way , ldh loci in which no recombination have taken place will also be amplified although the fragment will be of different length . primers ldh - out - up ([ seq id no : 10 ] 5 ′- gag ctg ctt taa gtg tct cag g - 3 ′) and ldh - out - dn3 ([ seq id no : 11 ] 5 ′- gaa gtg gat cct tta tag gcc ggt - 3 ′). pcr conditions were identical to those described under “ pcr detection of parm - ext fragment ” but with a prolonged elongation time ( 2 minutes 30 seconds ). the lactate dehydrogenase was efficiently removed and replaced with a parm - ext fragment without the need for an antibiotic resistance gene or any other functional dna sequence to be incorporated into the genome of the bacterium . a total of 150 cultures and pcr reactions were used to find the selected organism which has a frequency of 10 − 4 . should the identification have been made without the use of the current invention , which serves to increase the frequency of the selected microorganism , at least 10 , 000 single cultures would have had to be grown and pcr analyzed . the resulting strain is deposited in the german resource centre for biological material ( dsmz ) under the name thermoanaerobacter italicus pentocrobe 3100 - 401 with deposition number dsm 24725 . isolation of a potential 2 , 3 - butanediol producing bacterial strain from cow manure growth medium comprising reduced lb ( 50 % yeast extract and 50 % tryptone ) [ 17 ], supplemented with biomass derived c5 sugar ( 25 g / l xylose ), was inoculated with cow manure . after inoculation , the culture was kept free of atmospheric air . incubation was performed at a constant temperature at 37 ° c . with shaking 175 rpm . for cultivation on solid medium , technical grade xylose ( 25 g / l ) was added to the reduced lb medium supplemented with 15 g / l agar . the enzyme , 2 , 3 - butanediol dehydrogenase ( ec 1 . 1 . 1 . 4 ), is used solely in the production of 2 , 3 - butanediol . pcr , using the primers budc_det — 247_forward ([ seq id no : 12 ] 5 ′- aac gts att gtg aat aac gcm gg - 3 ′) and budc_det — 684_reverse ([ seq id no : 13 ] 5 ′- atc ttc cgg ctc nga nag gc - 3 ′) were used to detect the presence the budc gene [ seq id no : 14 ], which encodes 2 , 3 - butanediol dehydrogenase . pcr conditions were identical to those described under “ pcr detection of parm - ext fragment ”. after the mixed culture ( derived from an environmental cultivation ) was fully grown , a series of 10 - fold dilutions of the culture were generated by consecutive transfers into growth media . the dilutions were incubated under the same condition ( as described in “ growth conditions ”) to obtain fully grown cultures . dna was isolated from each of the individual dilution cultures . the presence of the 2 , 3 - butanediol dehydrogenase fragment was detected by pcr using budc_det — 247_forward and budc_det — 684_reverse , producing an amplified fragment of 438 base pairs . growth was detected in cultures diluted up to 10 − 9 , while the budc - fragment was detected ( by pcr screening ) in dilutions from 10 − 1 to 10 − 5 . 20 replicates of 10 − 6 dilutions of the same culture were prepared , and incubated until the cultures were fully grown . pcr screening of the 20 replicates of the 10 − 6 dilution cultures was performed using a screening matrix as described in “ matrix screening of multiple samples ”. the three mixtures 6am , 6bm , and 6cm were pcr positive for the presence of budc - fragment , whereas 6dm was negative . further analysis of the individual five cultures of 6am revealed that one 6a1 contained the budc - fragment . the fully grown culture of 6a1 was then used to prepare 20 dilution cultures each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 7 fold with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 6a1 ). the cultures were then incubated until fully grown . the presence of budc - fragment was analyzed among the pooled samples from the cultures . the presence of budc - fragment was detected in four of the 20 cultures including 7c4 . tube 7c4 was used to make 20 dilutions cultures each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 8 fold with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 7c4 ), which were incubated until fully grown . the presence of the budc - fragment was identified in 8d3 . 8d3 was used to make 20 dilution cultures each diluted by an additional factor of 10 fold to give a total dilution of 10 − 9 fold with respect to the undiluted starting culture ( 8d3 ), which were incubated until fully grown . the budc - fragment was detected in 9a5 and in two others , of the 20 cultures . from 9a5 , cultivation plates were prepared according the media in “ growth conditions ”. when colonies appeared on the plates 25 single colonies were picked . colony - pcr was performed by suspension of the picked colony in 20 μl nucleotidefree water . one μl of each suspended colony served as template for the pcr with the above used budc - detection primers . in total , the presence of the budc - fragment was detected in six of the 25 single colonies . 1 bloor , a . e . & amp ; cranenburgh , r . m . an efficient method of selectable marker gene excision by xer recombination for gene replacement in bacterial chromosomes . appl environ microbiol 72 , 2520 - 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