CAC2634-disrupted mutant of Clostridium acetobutylicum can be electrotransformed in air

To simplify the electrotransformation process of Clostridium acetobutylicum, which currently needs to be performed in an anaerobic chamber, thus laborious and time-consuming.The CAC2634 gene encoding PerR is a known peroxide regulon repressor in Cl. acetobutylicum. CAC2634 in a previously constructed Restriction-Modification system deficient Cl. acetobutylicum mutant SMB009 was disrupted using ClosTron method. The resulted mutant SMB012 can be electrotransformed in air with an efficiency of 1.2-3.1 × 10(3) transformants μg(-1) DNA.We demonstrated that the disruption of CAC2634 in Cl. acetobutylicum enables its electrotransformation in air.The electrotransformation process of Cl. acetobutylicum could be significantly simplified, especially when operating multiple electrotransformations.