Brophy, J. A. N. et al. Nat. Microbiol. 3, 1043–1053 (2018).

Undomesticated bacteria have a very wide range of properties that could be exploited for research, medicine, and technology with some engineering, but most of the bacteria in the wild are difficult if not impossible to genetically manipulate. To address this, Brophy et al. take advantage of conjugation, the natural process of DNA transfer between bacteria that secretes a protein–DNA complex from a donor to a recipient cell. They designed a Bacillus subtilis strain, XPORT, with a mobile integrative and conjugative element (ICE) and used it to transfer heterologous DNA to a recipient strain, ensuring that it could not spread beyond that strain. The approach allowed engineering of 52 species and 17 genera of bacteria, including isolates from human gut and skin. To illustrate a practical application, the researchers introduce a nitrogen-fixation pathway into various host bacteria.