Project description:Enterotoxigeneic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a leading cause of diarrhoeal infections in young children living in endemic regions in low and middle-income countries and adults travelling to these destinations. CFA/I fimbriae have been identified as the predominant colonisation factor associated with human ETEC infections. Here we used used Transposon-directed insertion-site sequencing (TraDIS) and transcriptomic analysis to identify the essential genome of the prototypical CFA/I expressing ETEC strain H10407 and uncover the survival mechanisms that enhance persistence of ETEC isolates in water and within mammalian hosts. RNA transcription profiles of H10407 were identified under different in vitro growth conditions including aerobic growth in neutral LB media (pH7); aerobic growth in acidic media (pH5); aerobic growth in alkaline media (pH9); anaerobic growth in neutral LB media (pH7); and survival in fresh water. Research work including RNA preparation and bioinformatics and statistical analyses were conducted at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) and the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR), the University of Sydney. The sequencing data was generated in the Bioscience Core Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
