title: Seeking completeness in bacterial mutant hunts.
abstract: The identification of most or all of the genetic functions that are required for a particular biological process could be achieved through phenotypic studies of high genome-coverage mutant collections. Technologies for creating such collections, in the form of mixed populations or individually arrayed sequence-defined mutants, are now available for numerous bacterial species. The analysis of mixed mutant collections using microarray-based detection procedures appears to be particularly effective in identifying functions required for complex processes such as virulence. The phenotypic analysis of sequence-defined mutant libraries provides a virtually complete identification of nonessential genes required for processes for which suitable screens can be devised. Such libraries also serve as a source of individual mutants for examining the biological relevance of gene associations revealed by transcriptional profiling or homology.
authors.affiliation: Division of Human Biology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue N, PO Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA.
authors.forename: Nina R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Salama
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Manoil
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D015723:Gene Library; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D009154:Mutation; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis