Strain development in Bacillus licheniformis: construction of biologically contained mutants deficient in sporulation and DNA repair.

By introducing defined deletions in recA and an essential sporulation gene (spoIV), stable mutant strains of Bacillus licheniformis were obtained which are totally asporogenous and severely affected in DNA repair, and thus being UV-hypersensitive. Studies on growth in various liquid media as well as on amylase production revealed no differences of the mutants when compared to the wild type. Hence, such genes appear to be suitable disruption targets for achieving passive biological containment in this industrially exploited species.