Edited by: Frank T. Robb, Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, USA
Reviewed by: Thijs Ettema, Uppsala University, Sweden; Imke Schroeder, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
*Correspondence: Haruyuki Atomi, Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan. e-mail:
This article was submitted to Frontiers in Evolutionary and Genomic Microbiology, a specialty of Frontiers in Microbiology.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the
This section provides an overview of the genetic systems developed in the Archaea. Genetic manipulation is possible in many members of the halophiles, methanogens,
Genetic manipulation, designated here as the ability to introduce, remove, or modify genes in a given organism, is a vital tool to study gene function. Deleting or overexpressing a gene may lead to phenotypic changes that provide valuable clues in determining the physiological role of the gene. Random mutagenesis and the isolation of mutant strains, followed by screening for genes that complement the mutations is a classical strategy to identify groups of genes that are involved in a particular biological function. Genetic manipulation can also be used to engineer cells to improve or introduce a desired function in a cell. The tools necessary for genetic manipulation have been developed in a wide variety of eukaryotes and bacteria, including the yeast
Compared to eukaryotes and bacteria, the development of genetic systems in Archaea is still at a modest stage. Many archaeal species have been found to be resistant against conventional antibiotics utilized for selection in bacterial genetic systems. In addition, many archaeal species can be regarded as extremophiles, preferring growth conditions that greatly differ to those of the mesophilic, aerobic model microbes such as
Novobiocin resistance | – | – | O | – | – | – | |
Mevinolin/simvastatin resistance | – | – | O | – | O | O | |
Puromycin resistance | – | – | – | O | – | – | |
Neomycin resistance | APH3′I/II | – | – | – | O | – | – |
Hygromycin B resistance | Thermostable |
– | – | – | – | O | – |
Butanol/benzyl alcohol resistance | – | – | – | – | O | O | |
Uracil prototrophy | Pyrimidine-free | O | – | O | O | ||
Leucine prototrophy | Leucine-free | O | – | – | – | ||
Tryptophan prototrophy | Tryptophan-free | O | – | – | O | ||
Histidine prototrophy | Histidine-free | – | O | – | – | ||
Lactose prototrophy | Lactose as major carbon/energy source | – | – | O | – | ||
Agmatine prototrophy | Applicable with tryptone/yeast extract | – | – | – | O | ||
5-Fluoroorotic acid resistance | – | O | – | O | O | ||
6-Azauracil/8-azahypoxanthine/8-aza-2,6-diaminopurine resistance | Resistant w/o |
– | – | O | – | – | |
6-Methylpurine resistance | Resistant w/o |
– | – | – | – | O |
Genetic systems have mainly been developed in
The
Systems based on other auxotrophic selectable markers have been established in
Gene manipulation is routinely performed in the halophiles and an overwhelming amount of genetic examinations has been reported in the literature (Leigh et al.,
Genetic systems have been developed in a number of species in the genera
In the
Using these genetic systems, a number of genes in
For
In
There are many natural genetic elements related to the crenarchaeal genus
Gene disruption based on
In
In
Genetic systems have mainly been developed in
In
Using the shuttle vector pYS3, the RNA polymerase subunit D gene with a HisTag sequence was expressed with an inducible promoter deriving from the fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase gene from
The genetic systems developed in the halophiles, methanogens,
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.