Transformation of vegetative cells of Bacillus thuringiensis by plasmid DNA

Plasmid DNA-mediated transformation of vegetative cells of Bacillus thuringiensis was studied with the following two plasmids: pBC16 coding for tetracycline resistance and pC194 expressing chloramphenicol resistance. A key step was the induction of competence by treatment of the bacteria with 50 mM Tris hydrochloride buffer (pH 8.9) containing 30% sucrose. Transformation frequency was strongly influenced by culture density during the uptake of DNA and required the presence of polyethylene glycol. Growth in a minimal medium supplemented with Casamino Acids gave 35 times more transformants than growth in a rich medium. The highest frequencies were obtained with covalently closed circular DNA. With all parameters optimized, the frequency was 10(-3) transformants per viable cell or 10(4) transformants per microgram of DNA. Cells previously frozen were also used as recipients in transformation experiments; such cells gave frequencies similar to those obtained with freshly grown cells. The procedure was optimized for B. thuringiensis subsp. gelechiae, but B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki, B. thuringiensis subsp. galleriae, B. thuringiensis subsp. thuringiensis, and B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis were also transformed. Compared with protoplast transformation, our method is much faster and 3 orders of magnitude more efficient per microgram of added DNA.