Global assessment of genomic regions required for growth in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Non-coding RNA regulation in pathogenic bacteria located inside eukaryotic cells

Intracellular bacterial pathogens have evolved distinct lifestyles inside eukaryotic cells. Some pathogens coexist with the infected cell in an obligate intracellular state, whereas others transit between the extracellular and intracellular environment. Adaptation to these intracellular lifestyles is regulated in both space and time. Non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulatory molecules that fine-tune important processes in bacterial physiology including cell envelope architecture, intermediate metabolism, bacterial communication, biofilm formation, and virulence. Recent studies have shown production of defined sRNA species by intracellular bacteria located inside eukaryotic cells. The molecules targeted by these sRNAs and their expression dynamics along the intracellular infection cycle remain, however, poorly characterized. Technical difficulties linked to the isolation of “intact” intracellular bacteria from infected host cells might explain why sRNA regulation in these specialized pathogens is still a largely unexplored field. Transition from the extracellular to the intracellular lifestyle provides an ideal scenario in which regulatory sRNAs are intended to participate; so much work must be done in this direction. This review focuses on sRNAs expressed by intracellular bacterial pathogens during the infection of eukaryotic cells, strategies used with these pathogens to identify sRNAs required for virulence, and the experimental technical challenges associated to this type of studies. We also discuss varied techniques for their potential application to study RNA regulation in intracellular bacterial infections.

Translating genomics research into control of tuberculosis: lessons learned and future prospects

Genomics research has enabled crucial insights into the adaptive evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as an obligate human pathogen. Here, we highlight major recent advances and evaluate the potential for genomics approaches to inform tuberculosis control efforts in high-burden settings.

ARTIST: high-resolution genome-wide assessment of fitness using transposon-insertion sequencing

Transposon-insertion sequencing (TIS) is a powerful approach for deciphering genetic requirements for bacterial growth in different conditions, as it enables simultaneous genome-wide analysis of the fitness of thousands of mutants. However, current methods for comparative analysis of TIS data do not adjust for stochastic experimental variation between datasets and are limited to interrogation of annotated genomic elements. Here, we present ARTIST, an accessible TIS analysis pipeline for identifying essential regions that are required for growth under optimal conditions as well as conditionally essential loci that participate in survival only under specific conditions. ARTIST uses simulation-based normalization to model and compensate for experimental noise, and thereby enhances the statistical power in conditional TIS analyses. ARTIST also employs a novel adaptation of the hidden Markov model to generate statistically robust, high-resolution, annotation-independent maps of fitness-linked loci across the entire genome. Using ARTIST, we sensitively and comprehensively define Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae loci required for host infection while limiting inclusion of false positive loci. ARTIST is applicable to a broad range of organisms and will facilitate TIS-based dissection of pathways required for microbial growth and survival under a multitude of conditions.

Transposon insertion sequencing (TIS) is a powerful method that couples high-density transposon mutagenesis with next-generation sequencing to comprehensively assess the fitness of thousands of transposon mutants across a genome. TIS is an extremely flexible technique that has been used to define genomic loci required for bacterial growth and survival in a variety of species and in many different growth conditions, including during host infection. However, there remain several important limitations to current TIS analysis methods. First, TIS data are not routinely normalized for the impact of experimental variability; second, most analyses are restricted to annotated loci and do not completely exploit the richness of TIS datasets; finally, TIS analysis methods are not easily accessible to most biologists. Here we present a pipeline—ARTIST—that addresses these issues and will transform TIS-based studies. We used ARTIST to conduct robust analyses of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae in vivo TIS datasets and comprehensively defined the genetic requirements of these pathogens for host infection. The ARTIST pipeline will make TIS analysis accessible to many researchers and greatly enhance the rigor of and insights gained from TIS studies in a wide range of microorganisms.

Energetics of pathogenic bacteria and opportunities for drug development

The emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens and our inability to develop new antimicrobials to overcome resistance has inspired scientists to consider new targets for drug development. Cellular bioenergetics is an area showing promise for the development of new antimicrobials, particularly in the discovery of new anti-tuberculosis drugs where several new compounds have entered clinical trials. In this review, we have examined the bioenergetics of various bacterial pathogens, highlighting the versatility of electron donor and acceptor utilisation and the modularity of electron transport chain components in bacteria. In addition to re-examining classical concepts, we explore new literature that reveals the intricacies of pathogen energetics, for example, how Salmonella enterica and Campylobacter jejuni exploit host and microbiota to derive powerful electron donors and sinks; the strategies Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa use to persist in lung tissues; and the importance of sodium energetics and electron bifurcation in the chemiosmotic anaerobe Fusobacterium nucleatum. A combination of physiological, biochemical, and pharmacological data suggests that, in addition to the clinically-approved target F1Fo-ATP synthase, NADH dehydrogenase type II, succinate dehydrogenase, hydrogenase, cytochrome bd oxidase, and menaquinone biosynthesis pathways are particularly promising next-generation drug targets. The realisation of cellular energetics as a rich target space for the development of new antimicrobials will be dependent upon gaining increased understanding of the energetic processes utilised by pathogens in host environments and the ability to design bacterial-specific inhibitors of these processes.

Structural studies suggest a peptidoglycan hydrolase function for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Tat-secreted protein Rv2525c

Among the few proteins shown to be secreted by the Tat system in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Rv2525c is of particular interest, since its gene is conserved in the minimal genome of Mycobacterium leprae. Previous evidence linked this protein to cell wall metabolism and sensitivity to β-lactams. We describe here the crystal structure of Rv2525c that shows a TIM barrel-like fold characteristic of glycoside hydrolases of the GH25 family, which includes prokaryotic and phage-encoded peptidoglycan hydrolases. Structural comparison with other members of this family combined with substrate docking suggest that, although the 'neighbouring group' catalytic mechanism proposed for this family still appears as the most plausible, the identity of residues involved in catalysis in GH25 hydrolases might need to be revised.

Genome-scale metabolic network validation of Shewanella oneidensis using transposon insertion frequency analysis

Transposon mutagenesis, in combination with parallel sequencing, is becoming a powerful tool for en-masse mutant analysis. A probability generating function was used to explain observed miniHimar transposon insertion patterns, and gene essentiality calls were made by transposon insertion frequency analysis (TIFA). TIFA incorporated the observed genome and sequence motif bias of the miniHimar transposon. The gene essentiality calls were compared to: 1) previous genome-wide direct gene-essentiality assignments; and, 2) flux balance analysis (FBA) predictions from an existing genome-scale metabolic model of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. A three-way comparison between FBA, TIFA, and the direct essentiality calls was made to validate the TIFA approach. The refinement in the interpretation of observed transposon insertions demonstrated that genes without insertions are not necessarily essential, and that genes that contain insertions are not always nonessential. The TIFA calls were in reasonable agreement with direct essentiality calls for S. oneidensis, but agreed more closely with E. coli essentiality calls for orthologs. The TIFA gene essentiality calls were in good agreement with the MR-1 FBA essentiality predictions, and the agreement between TIFA and FBA predictions was substantially better than between the FBA and the direct gene essentiality predictions.

Genes contributing to Staphylococcus aureus fitness in abscess- and infection-related ecologies

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of both community- and hospital-acquired infections that are increasingly antibiotic resistant. The emergence of S. aureus resistance to even last-line antibiotics heightens the need for the development of new drugs with novel targets. We generated a highly saturated transposon insertion mutant library in the genome of S. aureus and used Tn-seq analysis to probe the entire genome, with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity, for genes of importance in infection. We further identified genes contributing to fitness in various infected compartments (blood and ocular fluids) and compared them to genes required for growth in rich medium. This resulted in the identification of 426 genes that were important for S. aureus fitness during growth in infection models, including 71 genes that could be considered essential for survival specifically during infection. These findings highlight novel as well as previously known genes encoding virulence traits and metabolic pathways important for S. aureus proliferation at sites of infection, which may represent new therapeutic targets.

IMPORTANCE

Staphylococcus aureus continues to be a leading cause of antibiotic-resistant community and nosocomial infection. With the bacterium's acquisition of resistance to methicillin and, more recently, vancomycin, the need for the development of new drugs with novel targets is urgent. Applying a highly saturated Tn-seq mutant library to analyze fitness and growth requirements in a murine abscess and in various infection-relevant fluids, we identified S. aureus traits that enable it to survive and proliferate during infection. This identifies potential new targeting opportunities for the development of novel therapeutics.

The cell envelope glycoconjugates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the second most common cause of death due to a single infectious agent. The cell envelope of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of the disease in humans, is a source of unique glycoconjugates and the most distinctive feature of the biology of this organism. It is the basis of much of Mtb pathogenesis and one of the major causes of its intrinsic resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. At the same time, the unique structures of Mtb cell envelope glycoconjugates, their antigenicity and essentiality for mycobacterial growth provide opportunities for drug, vaccine, diagnostic and biomarker development, as clearly illustrated by recent advances in all of these translational aspects. This review focuses on our current understanding of the structure and biogenesis of Mtb glycoconjugates with particular emphasis on one of the most intriguing and least understood aspect of the physiology of mycobacteria: the translocation of these complex macromolecules across the different layers of the cell envelope. It further reviews the rather impressive progress made in the last 10 years in the discovery and development of novel inhibitors targeting their biogenesis.

Genome-wide mutant fitness profiling identifies nutritional requirements for optimal growth of Yersinia pestis in deep tissue

Rapid growth in deep tissue is essential to the high virulence of Yersinia pestis, causative agent of plague. To better understand the mechanisms underlying this unusual ability, we used transposon mutagenesis and high-throughput sequencing (Tn-seq) to systematically probe the Y. pestis genome for elements contributing to fitness during infection. More than a million independent insertion mutants representing nearly 200,000 unique genotypes were generated in fully virulent Y. pestis. Each mutant in the library was assayed for its ability to proliferate in vitro on rich medium and in mice following intravenous injection. Virtually all genes previously established to contribute to virulence following intravenous infection showed significant fitness defects, with the exception of genes for yersiniabactin biosynthesis, which were masked by strong intercellular complementation effects. We also identified more than 30 genes with roles in nutrient acquisition and metabolism as experiencing strong selection during infection. Many of these genes had not previously been implicated in Y. pestis virulence. We further examined the fitness defects of strains carrying mutations in two such genes—encoding a branched-chain amino acid importer (brnQ) and a glucose importer (ptsG)—both in vivo and in a novel defined synthetic growth medium with nutrient concentrations matching those in serum. Our findings suggest that diverse nutrient limitations in deep tissue play a more important role in controlling bacterial infection than has heretofore been appreciated. Because much is known about Y. pestis pathogenesis, this study also serves as a test case that assesses the ability of Tn-seq to detect virulence genes.

Our understanding of the functions required by bacteria to grow in deep tissues is limited, in part because most growth studies of pathogenic bacteria are conducted on laboratory media that do not reflect conditions prevailing in infected animal tissues. Improving our knowledge of this aspect of bacterial biology is important as a potential pathway to the development of novel therapeutics. Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium, is highly virulent due to its rapid dissemination and growth in deep tissues, making it a good model for discovering bacterial adaptations that promote rapid growth during infection. Using Tn-seq, a genome-wide fitness profiling technique, we identified several functions required for fitness of Y. pestis in vivo that were not previously known to be important. Most of these functions are needed to acquire or synthesize nutrients. Interference with these critical nutrient acquisition pathways may be an effective strategy for designing novel antibiotics and vaccines.

Small RNAs in mycobacteria: an unfolding story

Mycobacteria represent a class of powerful pathogens, including those causing tuberculosis and leprosy, which continue to be worldwide health challenges. In the last 20 years, an abundance of non-coding, small RNAs (sRNAs) have been discovered in model bacteria and gained significant attention as regulators of cellular responses, including pathogenesis. Naturally, a search in mycobacteria followed, revealing over 200 sRNAs thus far. Characterization of these sRNAs is only beginning, but differential expression under environmental stresses suggests relevance to mycobacterial pathogenesis. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current knowledge of sRNAs in mycobacteria, including historical perspective and techniques used for identification and characterization.

Tn-Seq analysis of Vibrio cholerae intestinal colonization reveals a role for T6SS-mediated antibacterial activity in the host

Analysis of genes required for host infection will provide clues to the drivers of evolutionary fitness of pathogens like Vibrio cholerae, a mounting threat to global heath. We used transposon insertion site sequencing (Tn-seq) to comprehensively assess the contribution of nearly all V. cholerae genes toward growth in the infant rabbit intestine. Four hundred genes were identified as critical to V. cholerae in vivo fitness. These included most known colonization factors and several new genes affecting the bacterium's metabolic properties, resistance to bile, and ability to synthesize cyclic AMP-GMP. Notably, a mutant carrying an insertion in tsiV3, encoding immunity to a bacteriocidal type VI secretion system (T6SS) effector VgrG3, exhibited a colonization defect. The reduced in vivo fitness of tsiV3 mutants depends on their cocolonization with bacterial cells carrying an intact T6SS locus and VgrG3 gene, suggesting that the V. cholerae T6SS is functional and mediates antagonistic interbacterial interactions during infection.

How sisters grow apart: mycobacterial growth and division

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is the aetiological agent of tuberculosis, owes much of its success as a pathogen to its unique cell wall and unusual mechanism of growth, which facilitate its adaptation to the human host and could have a role in clinical latency. Asymmetric growth and division increase population heterogeneity, which may promote antibiotic tolerance and the fitness of single cells. In this Review, we describe the unusual mechanisms of mycobacterial growth, cell wall biogenesis and division, and discuss how these processes might affect the survival of M. tuberculosis in vivo and contribute to the persistence of infection.

Tuberculosis drug discovery and emerging targets

Current tuberculosis (TB) therapies take too long and the regimens are complex and subject to adverse effects and drug-drug interactions with concomitant medications. The emergence of drug-resistant TB strains exacerbates the situation. Drug discovery for TB has resurged in recent years, generating compounds (hits) with varying potential for progression into developable leads. In parallel, advances have been made in understanding TB pathogenesis. It is now possible to apply the lessons learned from recent TB hit generation efforts and newly validated TB drug targets to generate the next wave of TB drug leads. Use of currently underexploited sources of chemical matter and lead-optimization strategies may also improve the efficiency of future TB drug discovery. Novel TB drug regimens with shorter treatment durations must target all subpopulations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis existing in an infection, including those responsible for the protracted TB treatment duration. This review proposes strategies for generating improved hits and leads that could help achieve this goal.

The highly conserved bacterial RNase YbeY is essential in Vibrio cholerae, playing a critical role in virulence, stress regulation, and RNA processing

YbeY, a highly conserved protein, is an RNase in E. coli and plays key roles in both processing of the critical 3′ end of 16 S rRNA and in 70 S ribosome quality control under stress. These central roles account for YbeY's inclusion in the postulated minimal bacterial genome. However, YbeY is not essential in E. coli although loss of ybeY severely sensitizes it to multiple physiological stresses. Here, we show that YbeY is an essential endoribonuclease in Vibrio cholerae and is crucial for virulence, stress regulation, RNA processing and ribosome quality control, and is part of a core set of RNases essential in most representative pathogens. To understand its function, we analyzed the rRNA and ribosome profiles of a V. cholerae strain partially depleted for YbeY and other RNase mutants associated with 16 S rRNA processing; our results demonstrate that YbeY is also crucial for 16 S rRNA 3′ end maturation in V. cholerae and that its depletion impedes subunit assembly into 70 S ribosomes. YbeY's importance to V. cholerae pathogenesis was demonstrated by the complete loss of mice colonization and biofilm formation, reduced cholera toxin production, and altered expression levels of virulence-associated small RNAs of a V. cholerae strain partially depleted for YbeY. Notably, the ybeY genes of several distantly related pathogens can fully complement an E. coli ΔybeY strain under various stress conditions, demonstrating the high conservation of YbeY's activity in stress regulation. Taken together, this work provides the first comprehensive exploration of YbeY's physiological role in a human pathogen, showing its conserved function across species in essential cellular processes.

Bacteria adapt and survive unfavorable environments by quickly changing their gene expression and physiology, for example as pathogens do during infection of host cells. Gene expression is often determined by RNA turnover, a balance between transcription and RNA decay carried out by multiple RNases. The recently identified RNase YbeY was shown in E. coli to participate in rRNA maturation and 70 S ribosome quality control, however YbeY's roles in other organisms and the extent of functional conservation is unknown. Here, we show that YbeY is an essential RNase in the pathogen Vibrio cholerae, critical for cell fitness and general stress tolerance. We demonstrate that YbeY is crucial for 16 S rRNA 3′ end maturation, assembly of functional 70 S ribosomes and ribosome quality control. Moreover, YbeY regulates virulence-associated small RNAs and its depletion leads to an overall reduction in pathogenesis, exemplified by significantly decreased biofilm formation, mouse colonization and cholera toxin production. We also show that YbeY belongs to a minimal core set of RNases essential in most representative pathogens. The multifaceted roles of YbeY in several essential cellular processes and its highly conserved function across bacterial species, suggest that YbeY could be an attractive new antimicrobial target.

Disruption of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis-specific genes impairs in vivo fitness

Background

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is an obligate intracellular pathogen that infects many ruminant species. The acquisition of foreign genes via horizontal gene transfer has been postulated to contribute to its pathogenesis, as these genetic elements are absent from its putative ancestor, M. avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH), an environmental organism with lesser pathogenicity. In this study, high-throughput sequencing of MAP transposon libraries were analyzed to qualitatively and quantitatively determine the contribution of individual genes to bacterial survival during infection.

Results

Out of 52384 TA dinucleotides present in the MAP K-10 genome, 12607 had a MycoMarT7 transposon in the input pool, interrupting 2443 of the 4350 genes in the MAP genome (56%). Of 96 genes situated in MAP-specific genomic islands, 82 were disrupted in the input pool, indicating that MAP-specific genomic regions are dispensable for in vitro growth (odds ratio = 0.21). Following 5 independent in vivo infections with this pool of mutants, the correlation between output pools was high for 4 of 5 (R = 0.49 to 0.61) enabling us to define genes whose disruption reproducibly reduced bacterial fitness in vivo. At three different thresholds for reduced fitness in vivo, MAP-specific genes were over-represented in the list of predicted essential genes. We also identified additional genes that were severely depleted after infection, and several of them have orthologues that are essential genes in M. tuberculosis.

Conclusions

This work indicates that the genetic elements required for the in vivo survival of MAP represent a combination of conserved mycobacterial virulence genes and MAP-specific genes acquired via horizontal gene transfer. In addition, the in vitro and in vivo essential genes identified in this study may be further characterized to offer a better understanding of MAP pathogenesis, and potentially contribute to the discovery of novel therapeutic and vaccine targets.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-415) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Mycobacterial Esx-3 requires multiple components for iron acquisition

ABSTRACT The type VII secretion systems are conserved across mycobacterial species and in many Gram-positive bacteria. While the well-characterized Esx-1 pathway is required for the virulence of pathogenic mycobacteria and conjugation in the model organism Mycobacterium smegmatis, Esx-3 contributes to mycobactin-mediated iron acquisition in these bacteria. Here we show that several Esx-3 components are individually required for function under low-iron conditions but that at least one, the membrane-bound protease MycP3 of M. smegmatis, is partially expendable. All of the esx-3 mutants tested, including the ΔmycP3ms mutant, failed to export the native Esx-3 substrates EsxHms and EsxGms to quantifiable levels, as determined by targeted mass spectrometry. Although we were able to restore low-iron growth to the esx-3 mutants by genetic complementation, we found a wide range of complementation levels for protein export. Indeed, minute quantities of extracellular EsxHms and EsxGms were sufficient for iron acquisition under our experimental conditions. The apparent separation of Esx-3 function in iron acquisition from robust EsxGms and EsxHms secretion in the ΔmycP3ms mutant and in some of the complemented esx-3 mutants compels reexamination of the structure-function relationships for type VII secretion systems. IMPORTANCE Mycobacteria have several paralogous type VII secretion systems, Esx-1 through Esx-5. Whereas Esx-1 is required for pathogenic mycobacteria to grow within an infected host, Esx-3 is essential for growth in vitro. We and others have shown that Esx-3 is required for siderophore-mediated iron acquisition. In this work, we identify individual Esx-3 components that contribute to this process. As in the Esx-1 system, most mutations that abolish Esx-3 protein export also disrupt its function. Unexpectedly, however, ultrasensitive quantitation of Esx-3 secretion by multiple-reaction-monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM-MS) revealed that very low levels of export were sufficient for iron acquisition under similar conditions. Although protein export clearly contributes to type VII function, the relationship is not absolute.

Mapping of genotype-phenotype diversity among clinical isolates of mycobacterium tuberculosis by sequence-based transcriptional profiling

Genome sequencing has identified an extensive repertoire of single nucleotide polymorphisms among clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but the extent to which these differences influence phenotypic properties of the bacteria remains to be elucidated. To determine whether these polymorphisms give rise to phenotypic diversity, we have integrated genome data sets with RNA sequencing to assess their impact on the comparative transcriptome profiles of strains belonging to M. tuberculosis Lineages 1 and 2. We observed clear correlations between genotype and transcriptional phenotype. These arose by three mechanisms. First, lineage-specific changes in amino acid sequence of transcriptional regulators were associated with alterations in their ability to control gene expression. Second, changes in nucleotide sequence were associated with alteration of promoter activity and generation of novel transcriptional start sites in intergenic regions and within coding sequences. We show that in some cases this mechanism is expected to generate functionally active truncated proteins involved in innate immune recognition. Finally, genes showing lineage-specific patterns of differential expression not linked directly to primary mutations were characterized by a striking overrepresentation of toxin–antitoxin pairs. Taken together, these findings advance our understanding of mycobacterial evolution, contribute to a systems level understanding of this important human pathogen, and more broadly demonstrate the application of state-of-the-art techniques to provide novel insight into mechanisms by which intergenic and silent mutations contribute to diversity.

Triosephosphate isomerase is dispensable in vitro yet essential for Mycobacterium tuberculosis to establish infection

Triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) catalyzes the interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P). This reaction is required for glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, and tpi has been predicted to be essential for growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, when studying a conditionally regulated tpi knockdown mutant, we noticed that depletion of TPI reduced growth of M. tuberculosis in media containing a single carbon source but not in media that contained both a glycolytic and a gluconeogenic carbon source. We used such two-carbon-source media to isolate a tpi deletion (Δtpi) mutant. The Δtpi mutant did not survive with single carbon substrates but grew like wild-type (WT) M. tuberculosis in the presence of both a glycolytic and a gluconeogenic carbon source. ¹³C metabolite tracing revealed the accumulation of TPI substrates in Δtpi and the absence of alternative triosephosphate isomerases and metabolic bypass reactions, which confirmed the requirement of TPI for glycolysis and gluconeogenesis in M. tuberculosis. The Δtpi strain was furthermore severely attenuated in the mouse model of tuberculosis, suggesting that M. tuberculosis cannot simultaneously access sufficient quantities of glycolytic and gluconeogenic carbon substrates to establish infection in mice.

The importance of central carbon metabolism for the pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis has recently been recognized, but the consequences of depleting specific metabolic enzymes remain to be identified for many enzymes. We investigated triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) because it is central to both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis and had been predicted to be essential for growth of M. tuberculosis. This work identified metabolic conditions that make TPI dispensable for M. tuberculosis growth in culture and proved that M. tuberculosis relies on a single TPI enzyme and has no metabolic bypass for the TPI-dependent interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Finally, we demonstrate that TPI is essential for growth of the pathogen in mouse lungs.

Characterization of the proline-utilization pathway in Mycobacterium tuberculosis through structural and functional studies

The proline-utilization pathway in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has recently been identified as an important factor in Mtb persistence in vivo, suggesting that this pathway could be a valuable therapeutic target against tuberculosis (TB). In Mtb, two distinct enzymes perform the conversion of proline into glutamate: the first step is the oxidation of proline into Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylic acid (P5C) by the flavoenzyme proline dehydrogenase (PruB), and the second reaction involves converting the tautomeric form of P5C (glutamate-γ-semialdehyde) into glutamate using the NAD(+)-dependent Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylic dehydrogenase (PruA). Here, the three-dimensional structures of Mtb-PruA, determined by X-ray crystallography, in the apo state and in complex with NAD(+) are described at 2.5 and 2.1 Å resolution, respectively. The structure reveals a conserved NAD(+)-binding mode, common to other related enzymes. Species-specific conformational differences in the active site, however, linked to changes in the dimer interface, suggest possibilities for selective inhibition of Mtb-PruA despite its reasonably high sequence identity to other PruA enzymes. Using recombinant PruA and PruB, the proline-utilization pathway in Mtb has also been reconstituted in vitro. Functional validation using a novel NMR approach has demonstrated that the PruA and PruB enzymes are together sufficient to convert proline to glutamate, the first such demonstration for monofunctional proline-utilization enzymes.

Post-translational regulation via Clp protease is critical for survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Unlike most bacterial species, Mycobacterium tuberculosis depends on the Clp proteolysis system for survival even in in vitro conditions. We hypothesized that Clp is required for the physiologic turnover of mycobacterial proteins whose accumulation is deleterious to bacterial growth and survival. To identify cellular substrates, we employed quantitative proteomics and transcriptomics to identify the set of proteins that accumulated upon the loss of functional Clp protease. Among the set of potential Clp substrates uncovered, we were able to unambiguously identify WhiB1, an essential transcriptional repressor capable of auto-repression, as a substrate of the mycobacterial Clp protease. Dysregulation of WhiB1 turnover had a toxic effect that was not rescued by repression of whiB1 transcription. Thus, under normal growth conditions, Clp protease is the predominant regulatory check on the levels of potentially toxic cellular proteins. Our findings add to the growing evidence of how post-translational regulation plays a critical role in the regulation of bacterial physiology.

Tryptophan biosynthesis protects mycobacteria from CD4 T-cell-mediated killing

Bacteria that cause disease rely on their ability to counteract and overcome host defenses. Here, we present a genome-scale study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) that uncovers the bacterial determinants of surviving host immunity, sets of genes we term "counteractomes." Through this analysis, we found that CD4 T cells attempt to contain Mtb growth by starving it of tryptophan--a mechanism that successfully limits infections by Chlamydia and Leishmania, natural tryptophan auxotrophs. Mtb, however, can synthesize tryptophan under stress conditions, and thus, starvation fails as an Mtb-killing mechanism. We then identify a small-molecule inhibitor of Mtb tryptophan synthesis, which converts Mtb into a tryptophan auxotroph and restores the efficacy of a failed host defense. Together, our findings demonstrate that the Mtb immune counteractomes serve as probes of host immunity, uncovering immune-mediated stresses that can be leveraged for therapeutic discovery.

Systems biology-based identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis persistence genes in mouse lungs

Identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis persistence genes is important for developing novel drugs to shorten the duration of tuberculosis (TB) treatment. We developed computational algorithms that predict M. tuberculosis genes required for long-term survival in mouse lungs. As the input, we used high-throughput M. tuberculosis mutant library screen data, mycobacterial global transcriptional profiles in mice and macrophages, and functional interaction networks. We selected 57 unique, genetically defined mutants (18 previously tested and 39 untested) to assess the predictive power of this approach in the murine model of TB infection. We observed a 6-fold enrichment in the predicted set of M. tuberculosis genes required for persistence in mouse lungs relative to randomly selected mutant pools. Our results also allowed us to reclassify several genes as required for M. tuberculosis persistence in vivo. Finally, the new results implicated additional high-priority candidate genes for testing. Experimental validation of computational predictions demonstrates the power of this systems biology approach for elucidating M. tuberculosis persistence genes.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), has a genetic repertoire that permits it to persist in the face of host immune responses. Identification of such persistence genes could reveal novel drug targets and elucidate mechanisms by which the organism eludes the immune system and resists drugs. Genetic screens have identified a total of 31 persistence genes, but to date only 15% of the ~4,000 M. tuberculosis genes have been tested experimentally. In this paper, as an alternative to brute force experimental screens, we describe computational methods that predict new persistence genes by combining known examples with growing databases of biological networks. Experimental testing demonstrated that these predictions are highly accurate, validating the computational approach and providing new information about M. tuberculosis persistence in host tissues. Using the new experimental results as additional input highlights additional genes for testing. Our approach can be extended to other data types and target organisms to characterize host-pathogen interactions relevant to this and other infectious diseases.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis exploits asparagine to assimilate nitrogen and resist acid stress during infection

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an intracellular pathogen. Within macrophages, M. tuberculosis thrives in a specialized membrane-bound vacuole, the phagosome, whose pH is slightly acidic, and where access to nutrients is limited. Understanding how the bacillus extracts and incorporates nutrients from its host may help develop novel strategies to combat tuberculosis. Here we show that M. tuberculosis employs the asparagine transporter AnsP2 and the secreted asparaginase AnsA to assimilate nitrogen and resist acid stress through asparagine hydrolysis and ammonia release. While the role of AnsP2 is partially spared by yet to be identified transporter(s), that of AnsA is crucial in both phagosome acidification arrest and intracellular replication, as an M. tuberculosis mutant lacking this asparaginase is ultimately attenuated in macrophages and in mice. Our study provides yet another example of the intimate link between physiology and virulence in the tubercle bacillus, and identifies a novel pathway to be targeted for therapeutic purposes.

Mycobacteria bypass mucosal NF-kB signalling to induce an epithelial anti-inflammatory IL-22 and IL-10 response

The mechanisms by which mycobacteria subvert the inflammatory defence to establish chronic infection remain an unresolved question in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Using primary epithelial cells, we have analysed mycobacteria induced epithelial signalling pathways from activation of TLRs to cytokine secretion. Mycobacterium bovis bacilli Calmette-Guerin induced phosphorylation of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)3 by PI3K-Akt in the signalling pathway downstream of TLR2 and TLR4. Mycobacteria did not suppress NF-κB by activating the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ. Instead the pro-inflammatory NF-κB was bypassed by mycobacteria induced GSK3 inhibition that promoted the anti-inflammatory transcription factor CREB. Mycobacterial infection did not thus induce mucosal pro-inflammatory response as measured by TNFα and IFNγ secretion, but led to an anti-inflammatory IL-10 and IL-22 production. Apart from CREB, MAP3Ks p38 and ERK1/2 activated the transcription factor AP-1 leading to IL-6 production. Interestingly, blocking of TLR4 before infection decreased epithelial IL-6 secretion, but increased the CREB-activated IL-10 production. Our data indicate that mycobacteria suppress epithelial pro-inflammatory production by suppressing NF-κB activation thereby shifting the infection towards an anti-inflammatory state. This balance between the host immune response and the pathogen could determine the outcome of infection.

A multi-level multi-scale approach to study essential genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background

The set of indispensable genes that are required by an organism to grow and sustain life are termed as essential genes. There is a strong interest in identification of the set of essential genes, particularly in pathogens, not only for a better understanding of the pathogen biology, but also for identifying drug targets and the minimal gene set for the organism. Essentiality is inherently a systems property and requires consideration of the system as a whole for their identification. The available experimental approaches capture some aspects but each method comes with its own limitations. Moreover, they do not explain the basis for essentiality in most cases. A powerful prediction method to recognize this gene pool including rationalization of the known essential genes in a given organism would be very useful. Here we describe a multi-level multi-scale approach to identify the essential gene pool in a deadly pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Results

The multi-level workflow analyses the bacterial cell by studying (a) genome-wide gene expression profiles to identify the set of genes which show consistent and significant levels of expression in multiple samples of the same condition, (b) indispensability for growth by using gene expression integrated flux balance analysis of a genome-scale metabolic model, (c) importance for maintaining the integrity and flow in a protein-protein interaction network and (d) evolutionary conservation in a set of genomes of the same ecological niche. In the gene pool identified, the functional basis for essentiality has been addressed by studying residue level conservation and the sub-structure at the ligand binding pockets, from which essential amino acid residues in that pocket have also been identified. 283 genes were identified as essential genes with high-confidence. An agreement of about 73.5% is observed with that obtained from the experimental transposon mutagenesis technique. A large proportion of the identified genes belong to the class of intermediary metabolism and respiration.

Conclusions

The multi-scale, multi-level approach described can be generally applied to other pathogens as well. The essential gene pool identified form a basis for designing experiments to probe their finer functional roles and also serve as a ready shortlist for identifying drug targets.

A genetic strategy to identify targets for the development of drugs that prevent bacterial persistence

Antibacterial drug development suffers from a paucity of targets whose inhibition kills replicating and nonreplicating bacteria. The latter include phenotypically dormant cells, known as persisters, which are tolerant to many antibiotics and often contribute to failure in the treatment of chronic infections. This is nowhere more apparent than in tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a pathogen that tolerates many antibiotics once it ceases to replicate. We developed a strategy to identify proteins that Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires to both grow and persist and whose inhibition has the potential to prevent drug tolerance and persister formation. This strategy is based on a tunable dual-control genetic switch that provides a regulatory range spanning three orders of magnitude, quickly depletes proteins in both replicating and nonreplicating mycobacteria, and exhibits increased robustness to phenotypic reversion. Using this switch, we demonstrated that depletion of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide synthetase (NadE) rapidly killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis under conditions of standard growth and nonreplicative persistence induced by oxygen and nutrient limitation as well as during the acute and chronic phases of infection in mice. These findings establish the dual-control switch as a robust tool with which to probe the essentiality of Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins under different conditions, including those that induce antibiotic tolerance, and NadE as a target with the potential to shorten current tuberculosis chemotherapies.

Complex genetics of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Three new studies have used whole-genome sequencing of M. tuberculosis to demonstrate unexpected complexity in the modern evolution of drug-resistant tuberculosis, and a fourth study suggests a close evolutionary relationship between the pathogen and its human host over a period of 70,000 years. Collectively, the observations in these studies suggest that future strategies to tackle drug-resistant tuberculosis must integrate host genetics with detailed strain epidemiology.

DEG 10, an update of the database of essential genes that includes both protein-coding genes and noncoding genomic elements

The combination of high-density transposon-mediated mutagenesis and high-throughput sequencing has led to significant advancements in research on essential genes, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of identified prokaryotic essential genes under diverse conditions and a revised essential-gene concept that includes all essential genomic elements, rather than focusing on protein-coding genes only. DEG 10, a new release of the Database of Essential Genes (available at http://www.essentialgene.org), has been developed to accommodate these quantitative and qualitative advancements. In addition to increasing the number of bacterial and archaeal essential genes determined by genome-wide gene essentiality screens, DEG 10 also harbors essential noncoding RNAs, promoters, regulatory sequences and replication origins. These essential genomic elements are determined not only in vitro, but also in vivo, under diverse conditions including those for survival, pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance. We have developed customizable BLAST tools that allow users to perform species- and experiment-specific BLAST searches for a single gene, a list of genes, annotated or unannotated genomes. Therefore, DEG 10 includes essential genomic elements under different conditions in three domains of life, with customizable BLAST tools.

A Hidden Markov Model for identifying essential and growth-defect regions in bacterial genomes from transposon insertion sequencing data

Background

Knowledge of which genes are essential to the survival of an organism is critical to understanding the function of genes, and for the identification of potential drug targets for antimicrobial treatment. Previous statistical methods for assessing essentiality based on sequencing of tranposon libraries have usually limited their assessment to strict 'essential’ or 'non-essential’ categories. However, this binary view of essentiality does not accurately represent the more nuanced ways the growth of an organism might be affected by the disruption of its genes. In addition, these methods often limit their analysis to open-reading frames. We propose a novel method for analyzing sequence data from transposon mutant libraries using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), along with formulas to adapt the parameters of the model to different datasets for robustness. This approach allows for the clustering of insertion sites into distinct regions of essentiality across the entire genome in a statistically rigorous manner, while also allowing for the detection of growth-defect and growth-advantage regions.

Results

We evaluate the performance of a 4-state HMM on a sequence dataset of M. tuberculosis transposon mutants. We also test the HMM on several synthetic datasets representing different levels of transposon insertion density and sequence coverage. We show that the HMM produces results that are highly correlated with previous assignments of essentiality for this organism. We also show that it detects growth-defect and growth-advantage genes previously shown to impair or enhance growth when disrupted.

Conclusions

A 4-state HMM provides an improved way of analyzing Tn-seq data and assessing different levels of essentiality that enables not only the characterization of essential and non-essential genes, but also genes whose disruption leads to impairment (or enhancement) of growth.

Lipoproteins of slow-growing Mycobacteria carry three fatty acids and are N-acylated by apolipoprotein N-acyltransferase BCG_2070c

Background

Lipoproteins are virulence factors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Bacterial lipoproteins are modified by the consecutive action of preprolipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase (Lgt), prolipoprotein signal peptidase (LspA) and apolipoprotein N- acyltransferase (Lnt) leading to the formation of mature triacylated lipoproteins. Lnt homologues are found in Gram-negative and high GC-rich Gram-positive, but not in low GC-rich Gram-positive bacteria, although N-acylation is observed. In fast-growing Mycobacterium smegmatis, the molecular structure of the lipid modification of lipoproteins was resolved recently as a diacylglyceryl residue carrying ester-bound palmitic acid and ester-bound tuberculostearic acid and an additional amide-bound palmitic acid.

Results

We exploit the vaccine strain Mycobacterium bovis BCG as model organism to investigate lipoprotein modifications in slow-growing mycobacteria. Using Escherichia coli Lnt as a query in BLASTp search, we identified BCG_2070c and BCG_2279c as putative lnt genes in M. bovis BCG. Lipoproteins LprF, LpqH, LpqL and LppX were expressed in M. bovis BCG and BCG_2070c lnt knock-out mutant and lipid modifications were analyzed at molecular level by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight/time-of-flight analysis. Lipoprotein N-acylation was observed in wildtype but not in BCG_2070c mutants. Lipoprotein N- acylation with palmitoyl and tuberculostearyl residues was observed.

Conclusions

Lipoproteins are triacylated in slow-growing mycobacteria. BCG_2070c encodes a functional Lnt in M. bovis BCG. We identified mycobacteria-specific tuberculostearic acid as further substrate for N-acylation in slow-growing mycobacteria.

The FUN of identifying gene function in bacterial pathogens; insights from Salmonella functional genomics

The availability of thousands of genome sequences of bacterial pathogens poses a particular challenge because each genome contains hundreds of genes of unknown function (FUN). How can we easily discover which FUN genes encode important virulence factors? One solution is to combine two different functional genomic approaches. First, transcriptomics identifies bacterial FUN genes that show differential expression during the process of mammalian infection. Second, global mutagenesis identifies individual FUN genes that the pathogen requires to cause disease. The intersection of these datasets can reveal a small set of candidate genes most likely to encode novel virulence attributes. We demonstrate this approach with the Salmonella infection model, and propose that a similar strategy could be used for other bacterial pathogens.

Induced ectopic expression of HigB toxin in Mycobacterium tuberculosis results in growth inhibition, reduced abundance of a subset of mRNAs and cleavage of tmRNA

In Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the genes Rv1954A-Rv1957 form an operon that includes Rv1955 and Rv1956 which encode the HigB toxin and the HigA antitoxin respectively. We are interested in the role and regulation of this operon, since toxin-antitoxin systems have been suggested to play a part in the formation of persister cells in mycobacteria. To investigate the function of the higBA locus, effects of toxin expression on mycobacterial growth and transcript levels were assessed in M. tuberculosis H37Rv wild type and in an operon deletion background. We show that expression of HigB toxin in the absence of HigA antitoxin arrests growth and causes cell death in M. tuberculosis. We demonstrate HigB expression to reduce the abundance of IdeR and Zur regulated mRNAs and to cleave tmRNA in M. tuberculosis, Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium smegmatis. This study provides the first identification of possible target transcripts of HigB in M. tuberculosis.

High-resolution definition of the Vibrio cholerae essential gene set with hidden Markov model-based analyses of transposon-insertion sequencing data

The coupling of high-density transposon mutagenesis to high-throughput DNA sequencing (transposon-insertion sequencing) enables simultaneous and genome-wide assessment of the contributions of individual loci to bacterial growth and survival. We have refined analysis of transposon-insertion sequencing data by normalizing for the effect of DNA replication on sequencing output and using a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based filter to exploit heretofore unappreciated information inherent in all transposon-insertion sequencing data sets. The HMM can smooth variations in read abundance and thereby reduce the effects of read noise, as well as permit fine scale mapping that is independent of genomic annotation and enable classification of loci into several functional categories (e.g. essential, domain essential or ‘sick’). We generated a high-resolution map of genomic loci (encompassing both intra- and intergenic sequences) that are required or beneficial for in vitro growth of the cholera pathogen, Vibrio cholerae. This work uncovered new metabolic and physiologic requirements for V. cholerae survival, and by combining transposon-insertion sequencing and transcriptomic data sets, we also identified several novel noncoding RNA species that contribute to V. cholerae growth. Our findings suggest that HMM-based approaches will enhance extraction of biological meaning from transposon-insertion sequencing genomic data.

Distributive conjugal transfer in mycobacteria generates progeny with meiotic-like genome-wide mosaicism, allowing mapping of a mating identity locus

We find that genome-wide DNA transfer by conjugation in mycobacteria affords bacteria that reproduce by binary fission the same advantages of sexual reproduction, and may explain the genomic evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria generates variation and drives evolution, and conjugation is considered a major contributor as it can mediate transfer of large segments of DNA between strains and species. We previously described a novel form of chromosomal conjugation in mycobacteria that does not conform to classic oriT-based conjugation models, and whose potential evolutionary significance has not been evaluated. Here, we determined the genome sequences of 22 F1-generation transconjugants, providing the first genome-wide view of conjugal HGT in bacteria at the nucleotide level. Remarkably, mycobacterial recipients acquired multiple, large, unlinked segments of donor DNA, far exceeding expectations for any bacterial HGT event. Consequently, conjugal DNA transfer created extensive genome-wide mosaicism within individual transconjugants, which generated large-scale sibling diversity approaching that seen in meiotic recombination. We exploited these attributes to perform genome-wide mapping and introgression analyses to map a locus that determines conjugal mating identity in M. smegmatis. Distributive conjugal transfer offers a plausible mechanism for the predicted HGT events that created the genome mosaicism observed among extant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium canettii species. Mycobacterial distributive conjugal transfer permits innovative genetic approaches to map phenotypic traits and confers the evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction in an asexual organism.

Bacteria reproduce by binary fission, generating two clones of the original; this restricts the genomic diversity of the population, which brings with it inherent evolutionary drawbacks. This problem can be eased by conjugation, which transfers DNA from a donor to a recipient bacterium. Understanding the potential of conjugal DNA transfer for generating genetic diversity is necessary for estimating gene flow through populations and for predicting rates of bacterial evolution. The influence of chromosomal conjugal DNA transfer on mycobacterial diversity has not been previously addressed. Here, we determine and compare the complete genome sequences of independent progeny from bacterial matings between defined donor and recipient strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis. We find the resulting hybrid bacteria to be extremely diverse blends of the parental strains, reminiscent of the genetic mixing that occurs through meiotic recombination in sexual organisms. This novel mechanism of conjugation can create genome-wide mosaicism in a single event, generating segments of donor DNA that range from small (∼0.05 kb) to large (∼250 kb), widely distributed around the recipient chromosome. We exploit this mixing by using genetic tools originally developed for finding mammalian disease genes to locate the genes that confer a donor phenotype in M. smegmatis. We speculate that similar genomic mosaicism observed in pathogenic mycobacteria arose from conjugation between ancestral progenitor strains.

Transposon insertion sequencing: a new tool for systems-level analysis of microorganisms

Our knowledge of gene function has increasingly lagged behind gene discovery, hindering our understanding of the genetic basis of microbial phenotypes. Recently, however, massively parallel sequencing has been combined with traditional transposon mutagenesis in techniques referred to as transposon sequencing (Tn-seq), high-throughput insertion tracking by deep sequencing (HITS), insertion sequencing (INSeq) and transposon-directed insertion site sequencing (TraDIS), making it possible to identify putative gene functions in a high-throughput manner. Here, we describe the similarities and differences of these related techniques and discuss their application to the probing of gene function and higher-order genome organization.

Approaches to querying bacterial genomes with transposon-insertion sequencing

In this review, we discuss transposon-insertion sequencing, variously known in the literature as TraDIS, Tn-seq, INSeq, and HITS. By monitoring a large library of single transposon-insertion mutants with high-throughput sequencing, these methods can rapidly identify genomic regions that contribute to organismal fitness under any condition assayable in the laboratory with exquisite resolution. We discuss the various protocols that have been developed and methods for analysis. We provide an overview of studies that have examined the reproducibility and accuracy of these methods, as well as studies showing the advantages offered by the high resolution and dynamic range of high-throughput sequencing over previous methods. We review a number of applications in the literature, from predicting genes essential for in vitro growth to directly assaying requirements for survival under infective conditions in vivo. We also highlight recent progress in assaying non-coding regions of the genome in addition to known coding sequences, including the combining of RNA-seq with high-throughput transposon mutagenesis.

Protein complexes and proteolytic activation of the cell wall hydrolase RipA regulate septal resolution in mycobacteria

Peptidoglycan hydrolases are a double-edged sword. They are required for normal cell division, but when dysregulated can become autolysins lethal to bacteria. How bacteria ensure that peptidoglycan hydrolases function only in the correct spatial and temporal context remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that dysregulation converts the essential mycobacterial peptidoglycan hydrolase RipA to an autolysin that compromises cellular structural integrity. We find that mycobacteria control RipA activity through two interconnected levels of regulation in vivo—protein interactions coordinate PG hydrolysis, while proteolysis is necessary for RipA enzymatic activity. Dysregulation of RipA protein complexes by treatment with a peptidoglycan synthase inhibitor leads to excessive RipA activity and impairment of correct morphology. Furthermore, expression of a RipA dominant negative mutant or of differentially processed RipA homologues reveals that RipA is produced as a zymogen, requiring proteolytic processing for activity. The amount of RipA processing differs between fast-growing and slow-growing mycobacteria and correlates with the requirement for peptidoglycan hydrolase activity in these species. Together, the complex picture of RipA regulation is a part of a growing paradigm for careful control of cell wall hydrolysis by bacteria during growth, and may represent a novel target for chemotherapy development.

Peptidoglycan (PG) is a major component of the bacterial cell wall, which forms a flexible, but strong mesh around the cell to oppose osmotic pressure and prevent lysis. PG is also dynamically modified, continually being disassembled and polymerized as the cell elongates and divides. It remains poorly understood how cells can titrate enough hydrolysis of the PG to allow bacterial growth without leading to excessive digestion and disruption of cellular integrity. In our work, we have identified two methods by which a critical PG hydrolase, RipA, is carefully controlled in Mycobacterium tuberculosis—protein interactions help prevent lethal RipA dysregulation, while proteolytic cleavage is used as a second step to activate the enzyme in order to separate daughter cells. Our work elaborates multiple post-transcriptional mechanisms for preventing PG hydrolases from becoming lethal autolysins. These different levels of regulation may serve as a more general paradigm for PG remodeling in other bacterial species.

Bayesian analysis of gene essentiality based on sequencing of transposon insertion libraries

MOTIVATION

Next-generation sequencing affords an efficient analysis of transposon insertion libraries, which can be used to identify essential genes in bacteria. To analyse this high-resolution data, we present a formal Bayesian framework for estimating the posterior probability of essentiality for each gene, using the extreme-value distribution to characterize the statistical significance of the longest region lacking insertions within a gene. We describe a sampling procedure based on the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm to calculate posterior probabilities of essentiality while simultaneously integrating over unknown internal parameters.

RESULTS

Using a sequence dataset from a transposon library for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we show that this Bayesian approach predicts essential genes that correspond well with genes shown to be essential in previous studies. Furthermore, we show that by using the extreme-value distribution to characterize genomic regions lacking transposon insertions, this method is capable of identifying essential domains within genes. This approach can be used for analysing transposon libraries in other organisms and augmenting essentiality predictions with statistical confidence scores.