Survival and Spread of Engineered and Associated Mycobacteriophage in Soil Microcosms.

Unlabelled: The inoculation of microbes into soil environments has numerous applications for improving soil quality and crop health; however, the ability of exogenous and engineered microbes to survive and spread in soil remains uncertain. To address this challenge, we assayed the survival and spread of , engineered with either plasmid transformation or genome integration, as well as its mycobacteriophage Kampy, in both sterilized and non-sterilized soil microcosms over a period of 49 days. While engineered and Kampy persisted in all soil microcosms, there was minimal evidence of spread to 5 cm away from the inoculation site.