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.
Asian-Pacific Research Foundation for Infectious Diseases (ARFID), Seoul 135-710, Korea. jhsong@smc.samsung.co.kr
Jae-Hoon
JH
Song
Kwan Soo
KS
Ko
Ji-Young
JY
Lee
Jin Yang
JY
Baek
Won Sup
WS
Oh
Ha Sik
HS
Yoon
Jin-Yong
JY
Jeong
Jongsik
J
Chun
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*