VERSATILE INSERTION PLASMIDS FOR TARGETED GENOME MANIPULATIONS IN BACTERIA - ISOLATION, DELETION, AND RESCUE OF THE PATHOGENICITY ISLAND LEE OF THE ESCHERICHIA-COLI O157-H7 GENOME

A system of versatile insertion plasmids was constructed that permits efficient delivery of the target sites of an ultra-rare-cutting endonu clease and the recombinase FLP into preselected sites of the bacterial genome. With the help of this system, the pathogenicity island LEE of the Escherichia coli 0157:H7 genome was as excised and isolated in vi tro, deleted in vivo, rescued as a plasmid, and transferred into anoth er strain.