Synechococcus elongatusPCC 7942 is an excellent model system for studying the molecular mechanism of the circadian clock in cyanobacteria. The “plastic” genetic characteristics of this organism have facilitated the development of various methods for mutagenesis of its chromosome. These methods are based on homologous recombination between the chromosome and foreign DNA, introduced to the cyanobacteria by either transformation or conjugation. Here we describe different approaches to mutagenize the chromosome ofS. elongatus, including insertional mutagenesis, hit-and-run allele replacement,rps12-mediated gene replacement, and regulated expression of genes from ectopic sites, the neutral sites of theS. elongatusgenome.
