Development of a mutant strain of Escherichia coli for molecular cloning of highly methylated DNA

A mutant strain of Escherichia coli designated as GR219 that allows efficient molecular cloning of highly methylated bean DNA has been developed by UV light mutation of the parent LE392 strr strain. This mutant strain, like the parent, is streptomycin resistant and is biologically contained, because it requires thymidine for growth. Both the wild type and the mutant strain have lambda phage receptors so both can be utilized for construction of genomic libraries using the phase as a vector. The efficiency of transformation of the parent and the mutant strain with a recombinant plasmid containing bean DNA was compared to the efficiency of transformation of the PLK-F' strain, which has a deletion of mcrA and mcrB genes and, therefore, allows transformation with methylated bean DNA. It has been found that the GR219 strain has the highest efficiency of transformation, while the PLK-F' strain shows less, and the parent LE392 strr strain the least efficiency of transformation. These results indicate that strains of E. coli with mcrA and mcrB genes can recognize and degrade highly methylated DNA. However, other undefined factors affected by the altered gene(s) in the GR219 strain are also involved in the recognition and degradation of any cloned foreign DNA