How the Length of DNA Multimers Influences the Efficiency of Transforming the Bacteria Bacillus Subtilis

Public project summary

As the need for efficient and safe pharmaceutical protein production grows with the population and number of therapeutics discoveries, the need to develop a more suitable, scalable host for protein production proves vital. The bacterial species Bacillus subtilis has substantial potential to serve as an efficient protein production host. However, transforming B. subtilis with foreign DNA is notoriously difficult compared to transforming E. coli, due to properties like its thick cell wall and innate genetic defense system. Rolling circle amplification, thus, (RCA) presents a novel approach for generating multimers—multiple plasmids (i.e. bacterial DNA) linked together such that Bacillus subtilis can be transformed with greater efficacy. This project will study the viability of DNA multimers amplified through RCA in heightening the efficiency of transforming Bacillus subtilis.