IDENTIFICATION OF GENES WHICH ALLOW A MICROORGANISM TO ADAPTTO A PARTICULAR ENVIRONMENT

摘要

A method for identifying a microorganism having a reduced adaptation to a particular environment comprising the steps of: (1) providing a plurality of microorganisms each of which is independently mutat ed by the insertional inactivation of a gene with a nucleic acid comprising a unique marker sequence so that each mutant contains a different marker sequence, or clones of the said microorganism; (2) providing individually a stored sample of each mutant produced by step (1) a nd providing individually stored nucleic acid comprising the unique marker sequence from each individual mutant; (3) introducing a plurality of mutants produced by step (1) into the said particular environment and allowing those microorganisms which are able to do so to gro w in the said environment; (4) retrieving microorganisms from the said environment or a selected part thereof and isolating the nucle ic acid from the retrieved microorganisms; (5) comparing any marker sequences in the nucleic acid isolated in step (4) to the unique mark er sequence of each individual mutant stored as in step (2); and (6) selecting an individual mutant which does not contain any of the marker sequences as isolated in step (4).