Methods for Electroporation and Transformation Confirmation in Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM20016

L.Reuteri, and specifically the strain, DSM20016 is a robust, natural human gut commensal, with great promise for therapeutic delivery and disease detection throughout the gastrointestinal tract. This work will help position DSM20016 as a synthetic biology chassis for those kinds of applications. Lactobacillales have no specific model organism.

Preferred species do exist, but they're usually chosen with a bias towards particular research aims. The variation within the bacterial family has led to fragmented protocols, some with iterations of modifications going back through publications. It is very difficult for people starting out to filter exactly what is and is not useful.

One paper for the transformation of DSM20016 does exist, but it's not modern. Modern protocols for other Lactobacillales family members exist, but they are not DSM20016. Here we strive to provide an easy to use, centralized, modernized, complete set of protocols for DSM20016 electroporation.

This protocol set offers substantial modernization over previous DSM20016 exploration protocol, and elucidates some hanging threads, as well as emphasizing parts that were previously less clear. The protocol set is also complete, and specifically for DSM20016, a strain for which other non-DSM20016 protocols are not totally compatible. One of our main goals is using microbes as inexpensive sensors and delivery systems.

We're working with intestinal disease experts to use DSM20016 to sense the conditions in the gastrointestinal tract and deliver therapeutics as required.