Highly DNA-restrictive Corynebacteria can be transformed with DNA made
in vitro by PCR amplification of a sequence that contains the replica
tion origin of pBL1, a plasmid common to many Corynebacteria. In all s
trains examined, the transformation efficiencies of PCR-synthetized DN
A equal or improve the performances of heterologous DNA extracted from
wild-type and dam(-)-dcm(-) strains of Escherichia coil. The transfor
mation efficiencies obtained with PCR-made DNA may be high enough to p
ermit its general application to experiments of gene integration. (C)
1996 Academic Press, Inc.