title: High confidence prediction of essential genes in Burkholderia cenocepacia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Essential genes are absolutely required for the survival of an organism. The identification of essential genes, besides being one of the most fundamental questions in biology, is also of interest for the emerging science of synthetic biology and for the development of novel antimicrobials. New antimicrobial therapies are desperately needed to treat multidrug-resistant pathogens, such as members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We hypothesize that essential genes may be highly conserved within a group of evolutionary closely related organisms. Using a bioinformatics approach we determined that the core genome of the order Burkholderiales consists of 649 genes. All but two of these identified genes were located on chromosome 1 of Burkholderia cenocepacia. Although many of the 649 core genes of Burkholderiales have been shown to be essential in other bacteria, we were also able to identify a number of novel essential genes present mainly, or exclusively, within this order. The essentiality of some of the core genes, including the known essential genes infB, gyrB, ubiB, and valS, as well as the so far uncharacterized genes BCAL1882, BCAL2769, BCAL3142 and BCAL3369 has been confirmed experimentally in B. cenocepacia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report on the identification of essential genes using a novel bioinformatics strategy and provide bioinformatics and experimental evidence that the large majority of the identified genes are indeed essential. The essential genes identified here may represent valuable targets for the development of novel antimicrobials and their detailed study may shed new light on the functions required to support life.
authors: Department of Microbiology, Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. mario.juhas@uzh.ch
authors: Mario
authors: M
authors: Juhas
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Stark
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: von Mering
authors: Puthapoom
authors: P
authors: Lumjiaktase
authors: Derrick W
authors: DW
authors: Crook
authors: Miguel A
authors: MA
authors: Valvano
authors: Leo
authors: L
authors: Eberl
mesh_terms: D057508:Burkholderia cenocepacia / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D023061:Gene Order / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D020043:Genes, Essential / Q000235:genetics*; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D009876:Operon / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype