Dataset Information

Conditional lethal amber mutations in essential Escherichia coli genes.

ABSTRACT: The essential genes of microorganisms encode biological functions important for survival and thus tend to be of high scientific interest. Drugs that interfere with essential functions are likely to be interesting candidates for antimicrobials. However, these genes are hard to study genetically because knockout mutations in them are by definition inviable. We recently described a conditional mutation system in Escherichia coli that uses a plasmid to produce an amber suppressor tRNA regulated by the arabinose promoter. This suppressor was used here in the construction of amber mutations in seven essential E. coli genes. Amber stop codons were introduced as "tagalong" mutations in the flanking DNA of a downstream antibiotic resistance marker by lambda red recombination. The drug marker was removed by expression of I-SceI meganuclease, leaving a markerless mutation. We demonstrate the method with the genes frr, gcpE, lpxC, map, murA, ppa, and rpsA. We were unable to isolate an amber mutation in ftsZ. Kinetics of cell death and morphological changes were measured following removal of arabinose. As expected given the wide range of cellular mechanisms represented, different mutants showed widely different death curves. All of the mutations were bactericidal except the mutation in gcpE, which was bacteriostatic. The strain carrying an amber mutation in murA was by far the most sensitive, showing rapid killing in nonpermissive medium. The MurA protein is critical for peptidoglycan synthesis and is the target for the antibiotic fosfomycin. Such experiments may inexpensively provide valuable information for the identification and prioritization of targets for antibiotic development.

SUBMITTER: Herring CD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC387789 | biostudies-literature | 2004 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Conditional lethal amber mutations in essential Escherichia coli genes.

Herring Christopher D CD Blattner Frederick R FR

Journal of bacteriology 20040501 9

The essential genes of microorganisms encode biological functions important for survival and thus tend to be of high scientific interest. Drugs that interfere with essential functions are likely to be interesting candidates for antimicrobials. However, these genes are hard to study genetically because knockout mutations in them are by definition inviable. We recently described a conditional mutation system in Escherichia coli that uses a plasmid to produce an amber suppressor tRNA regulated by t ...[more]

PMID: 15090508

Similar Datasets

Project description:Cah is a calcium-binding autotransporter protein involved in autoaggregation and biofilm formation. Although cah is widespread in Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), we detected mutations in cah at a frequency of 31.3% in this pathogen. In STEC O157:H7 supershedder strain SS17, a large deletion results in a smaller coding sequence, encoding a protein lacking the C-terminal 71 amino acids compared with Cah in STEC O157:H7 strain EDL933. We examined the function of Cah in biofilm formation and host colonization to better understand the selective pressures for cah mutations. EDL933-Cah played a conditional role in biofilm formation in vitro: it enhanced E. coli DH5? biofilm formation on glass surfaces under agitated culture conditions that prevented autoaggregation but inhibited biofilm formation under hydrostatic conditions that facilitated autoaggregation. This function appeared to be strain dependent since Cah-mediated biofilm formation was diminished when an EDL933 cah gene was expressed in SS17. Deletion of cah in EDL933 enhanced bacterial attachment to spinach leaves and altered the adherence pattern of EDL933 to bovine recto-anal junction squamous epithelial (RSE) cells. In contrast, in trans expression of EDL933 cah in SS17 increased its attachment to leaf surfaces, and in DH5?, it enhanced its adherence to RSE cells. Hence, the ecological function of Cah appears to be modulated by environmental conditions and other bacterial strain-specific properties. Considering the prevalence of cah in STEC and its role in attachment and biofilm formation, cah mutations might be selected in ecological niches in which inactivation of Cah would result in an increased fitness in STEC during colonization of plants or animal hosts.IMPORTANCE Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) harbors genes encoding diverse adhesins, and many of these are known to play an important role in bacterial attachment and host colonization. We demonstrated here that the autotransporter protein Cah confers on E. coli DH5? cells a strong autoaggregative phenotype that is inversely correlated with its ability to form biofilms and plays a strain-specific role in plant and animal colonization by STEC. Although cah is widespread in the STEC population, we detected a mutation rate of 31.3% in cah, which is similar to that reported for rpoS and fimH The formation of cell aggregates due to increased bacterium-to-bacterium interactions may be disadvantageous to bacterial populations under conditions that favor a planktonic state in STEC. Therefore, a loss-of-function mutation in cah is likely a selective trait in STEC when autoaggregative properties become detrimental to bacterial cells and may contribute to the adaptability of STEC to fluctuating environments.

Project description:CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) has facilitated the study of essential genes in diverse organisms using both high-throughput and targeted approaches. Despite the promise of this technique, no comprehensive arrayed CRISPRi library targeting essential genes exists for the model bacterium Escherichia coli, or for any Gram-negative species. Here, we built and characterized such a library. Each of the ∼500 strains in our E. coli library contains an inducible, chromosomally integrated single guide RNA (sgRNA) targeting an essential (or selected nonessential) gene and can be mated with a pseudo-Hfr donor strain carrying a dcas9 cassette to create a CRISPRi knockdown strain. Using this system, we built an arrayed library of CRISPRi strains and performed population and single-cell growth and morphology measurements as well as targeted follow-up experiments. These studies found that inhibiting translation causes an extended lag phase, identified new modulators of cell morphology, and revealed that the morphogene mreB is subject to transcriptional feedback regulation, which is critical for the maintenance of morphology. Our findings highlight canonical and noncanonical roles for essential genes in numerous aspects of cellular homeostasis. IMPORTANCE Essential genes make up only ∼5 to 10% of the genetic complement in most organisms but occupy much of their protein synthesis and account for almost all antibiotic targets. Despite the importance of essential genes, their intractability has, until recently, hampered efforts to study them. CRISPRi has facilitated the study of essential genes by allowing inducible and titratable depletion. However, all large-scale CRISPRi studies in Gram-negative bacteria thus far have used plasmids to express CRISPRi components and have been constructed in pools, limiting their utility for targeted assays and complicating the determination of antibiotic effects. Here, we use a modular method to construct an arrayed library of chromosomally integrated CRISPRi strains targeting the essential genes of the model bacterium Escherichia coli. This library enables targeted studies of essential gene depletions and high-throughput determination of antibiotic targets and facilitates studies targeting the outer membrane, an essential component that serves as the major barrier to antibiotics.

Dataset Information

Conditional lethal amber mutations in essential Escherichia coli genes.

Publications

Conditional lethal amber mutations in essential Escherichia coli genes.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets