BIOLISTIC TRANSFORMATION OF MUCOR-CIRCINELLOIDES

Intact ungerminated spores or germinating swollen spores of Mucor circ inelloides were biolistically transformed to leucine prototrophy with the autonomous replicating plasmids pLeu4 and pMCL1302. The former dev elopmental stage was efficiently transformed with both plasmids. The e xistence of pLeu4 sequences, as self-replicating elements, within Leu( +) transformants was established by Southern analysis and by the recov ery of plasmid pLeu4 in bacteria transformed with total DNA from M. ci rcinelloides transformants. This is the first report of the transforma tion of intact cells of a member of the Zygomycetes.