Methanococcus maripaludis is an anaerobic, methane-producing archaeon that utilizes H2 or formate for the reduction of CO2 to methane. Tryptophan auxotrophs were constructed by in vitro insertions of the Tn5 transposon into the tryptophan operon, followed by transformation into M. maripaludis. This method could serve for rapid insertions into large cloned DNA regions.

transposon;tryptophan auxotrophs;archaea;methanogens