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Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic organisms that utilize photosynthesis as an energy source1,2. Research is increasingly focused on cyanobacterial species. Several cyanobacteria can be transformed with DNA3. Genes can be knocked out or overexpressed in these species. However, transformation is restricted to a few species4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, and it can be difficult to establish transformation in strains from culture collections or the wild8. Strains of the filamentous species Phormidium lacuna (Figure 1) were isolated from marine rockpools, in which environmental conditions, such as salt concentrations or temperature, fluctuate over time. These filamentous cyanobacteria can be used as model organisms for the order Oscillatoriales12 to which they belong.
During trials testing gene transfer by electroporation13,14 it was found that P. lacuna can be transformed by natural transformation15. In this process, DNA is taken up naturally by some cells. Compared to other methods of transformation16,17, natural transformation has the advantage of not requiring additional tools that could complicate the procedure. For example, electroporation requires proper cuvettes, intact wires, and selection of the proper voltage. P. lacuna is presently the only Oscillatoriales member susceptible to natural transformation. Because the original protocol is based on electroporation protocols, it still included several washing steps that might be unnecessary. Different approaches were tested to simplify the protocol, leading to the transformation protocol presented here.
The genome sequence is essential for further molecular studies based on gene knockout or overexpression. Although genome sequences can be obtained with next-generation sequencing machines within short periods, the extraction of DNA can be difficult and depends on the species. With P. lacuna, several protocols were tested. A modified cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)-based method was then established, resulting in acceptable purity of DNA and DNA yields of each purification cycle for continued work in the laboratory. The genome of five strains could be sequenced with this protocol. The next logical transformation step was to establish protein expression in P. lacuna.
The sfGFP used as a marker protein in this protocol can be detected with any fluorescence microscope. All promoters that were tested could be used for P. lacuna sfGFP expression. The increasing number of strains arising from transformation has resulted in the need for a method for storing the cultures. Such methods are established for Escherichia coli and many other bacteria18. In standard protocols, glycerol cultures are prepared, transferred in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 °C. This method requires only a few steps and is highly reliable for those species for which it is established. The standard protocol was not feasible for P. lacuna because living cells could not be recovered in all cases. However, when glycerol was removed after thawing, cells of all trials survived. Simple methods are presented for the analysis of motility of P. lacuna, which can be combined with knockout mutagenesis to investigate type IV pili or the role of photoreceptors. These assays are different from those of single-celled cyanobacteria19,20,21 and can also be useful for other Oscillatoria.