Identification of essential genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae by allelic replacement mutagenesis.
To find potential targets of novel antimicrobial agents, we identified essential genes of Streptococcus pneumoniae using comparative genomics and allelic replacement mutagenesis. We compared the genome of S. pneumoniae R6 with those of Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus, and selected 693 candidate target genes with > 40% amino acid sequence identity to the corresponding genes in at least two of the other species. The 693 genes were disrupted and 133 were found to be essential for growth. Of these, 32 encoded proteins of unknown function, and we were able to identify orthologues of 22 of these genes by genomic comparisons. The experimental method used in this study is easy to perform, rapid and efficient for identifying essential genes of bacterial pathogens.
Song
Jae-Hoon
JH
Asian-Pacific Research Foundation for Infectious Diseases (ARFID), Seoul 135-710, Korea. jhsong@smc.samsung.co.kr
Ko
Kwan Soo
KS
Lee
Ji-Young
JY
Baek
Jin Yang
JY
Oh
Won Sup
WS
Yoon
Ha Sik
HS
Jeong
Jin-Yong
JY
Chun
Jongsik
J
D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D020043:Genes, Essential; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional / Q000379:methods*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000235:genetics*