Mutagenesis of Alcaligenes eutrophus by insertion of the drug-resistance transposon Tn5.

Drug-resistance element Tn5 coding for kanamycin resistance was used for mutagenesis of Alcaligenes eutrophus strain H16. The vehicle for introducing Tn5 into A. eutrophus was plasmid pJB4JI harboured by Escherichia coli. Kanamycin-resistant transconjugants occurred at a frequency of approximately 5 x 10(-8). One third of the transconjugants exhibited other plasmid-coded resistances such as gentamycin and spectinomycin. However, the latter markers were not stably maintained in the new host. Among the kanamycin-resistant transconjugants three classes of mutants were found: (i) Auxotrophic mutants occurred at a frequency of 0.8% and showed requirements for histidine, methionine, aspartate or isoleucine. Out of eleven auxotrophic mutants examined eight reverted to prototrophy. However, none of the revertants was kanamycin-sensitive. (ii) Mutants unable to grow with fructose as the carbon source occurred at a frequency of almost 10%. (iii) Mutants which had lost the ability to grow autotrophically with hydrogen and carbon dioxide were found at a frequency of 1%. Further analyses revealed that this class of mutants was either defective in carbon dioxide fixation or impaired in hydrogen metabolism.