Use of clostridial methyltransferases for generating novel strains

A method of generating a bacterial recombinant cell expressing a DNA Type I methyltransferase having biological activities, comprising:

• (a) introducing a methylation vector into a bacterial host cell wherein said methylation vector expresses a DNA Type I methyltransferase polynucleotide, wherein the DNA Type I methyltransferase polynucleotide is selected from the group consisting of a polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence having at least 98% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO:
• 1, a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence at least 97% sequence identity with the polypeptide SEQ ID NO:
• 2, a polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence having at least 97% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO:
• 3, and a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence at least 98% sequence identity with the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:
• 4;
• (b) introducing a transforming vector into the bacterial host cell wherein said transforming vector comprises plasmid DNA that is methylated by said methylation vector;
• and
• (c) purifying and transferring the methylated plasmid DNA from the bacterial host cell to a second bacterial recipient cell that can degrade the plasmid DNA but which cannot degrade the methylated DNA.