The emerging role of recombineering in microbiology

•Recombineering is a very popular and efficient genetic engineering technique that is based on phage-encoded homologous recombination and functions independently of RecA.•Recombineering is widely used in genome mining, an important strategy for discovering new microbial natural products.•Construction of viral infectious clones and mutagenesis of viruses to develop vaccines or gene therapy vectors can be accomplished by recombineering.•Recombineering provides a powerful tool for editing phage genomes to obtain phage mutants that could potentially be used to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.