An inexpensive anaerobic chamber for the genetic manipulation of strictly anaerobic bacteria

Abstract Strictly anaerobic bacteria are important to both human health and industrial usage. These bacteria are sensitive to oxygen, therefore, it is preferable to manipulate these microbes in an anaerobic chamber. However, commercial anaerobic chambers (CACs) are expensive, making them less accessible to scientists with a limited budget, especially to those in developing countries. The high price of commercial chambers has hindered, at least partially, the progress of research on anaerobes in developing countries. In the research presented here, we developed an inexpensive and reliable anaerobic chamber and successfully achieved routine maintenance of eleven strictly anaerobic bacterial strains. Furthermore, genetic manipulation examples have been set for both Clostridioides difficile 630 and Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 strains to validate that the chamber could applied to advanced genetic engineering of strictly anaerobes. C. difficile and C. beijerinckii were both genetically manipulated in this chamber, showing it’s utility for the genetic engineering of anaerobes. Most importantly, the anaerobic chamber was 76% - 88% less expensive than a CACs and has similar functionality with regards to the cultivation and manipulation of strictly anaerobic bacteria. The anaerobic chamber described in this study will promote the research of anaerobes in developing counties and scientists who have limited research budgets.