An in silico evaluation of Tn916 as a tool for generalized mutagenesis in Haemophilus influenzae Rd

Enterococcal Genetics

The study of the genetics of enterococci has focused heavily on mobile genetic elements present in these organisms, the complex regulatory circuits used to control their mobility, and the antibiotic resistance genes they frequently carry. Recently, more focus has been placed on the regulation of genes involved in the virulence of the opportunistic pathogenic species Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium. Little information is available concerning fundamental aspects of DNA replication, partition, and division; this article begins with a brief overview of what little is known about these issues, primarily by comparison with better-studied model organisms. A variety of transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms of regulation of gene expression are then discussed, including a section on the genetics and regulation of vancomycin resistance in enterococci. The article then provides extensive coverage of the pheromone-responsive conjugation plasmids, including sections on regulation of the pheromone response, the conjugative apparatus, and replication and stable inheritance. The article then focuses on conjugative transposons, now referred to as integrated, conjugative elements, or ICEs, and concludes with several smaller sections covering emerging areas of interest concerning the enterococcal mobilome, including nonpheromone plasmids of particular interest, toxin-antitoxin systems, pathogenicity islands, bacteriophages, and genome defense.

New Insights into the Classification and Integration Specificity of Streptococcus Integrative Conjugative Elements through Extensive Genome Exploration

Recent genome analyses suggest that integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are widespread in bacterial genomes and therefore play an essential role in horizontal transfer. However, only a few of these elements are precisely characterized and correctly delineated within sequenced bacterial genomes. Even though previous analysis showed the presence of ICEs in some species of Streptococci, the global prevalence and diversity of ICEs was not analyzed in this genus. In this study, we searched for ICEs in the completely sequenced genomes of 124 strains belonging to 27 streptococcal species. These exhaustive analyses revealed 105 putative ICEs and 26 slightly decayed elements whose limits were assessed and whose insertion site was identified. These ICEs were grouped in seven distinct unrelated or distantly related families, according to their conjugation modules. Integration of these streptococcal ICEs is catalyzed either by a site-specific tyrosine integrase, a low-specificity tyrosine integrase, a site-specific single serine integrase, a triplet of site-specific serine integrases or a DDE transposase. Analysis of their integration site led to the detection of 18 target-genes for streptococcal ICE insertion including eight that had not been identified previously (ftsK, guaA, lysS, mutT, rpmG, rpsI, traG, and ebfC). It also suggests that all specificities have evolved to minimize the impact of the insertion on the host. This overall analysis of streptococcal ICEs emphasizes their prevalence and diversity and demonstrates that exchanges or acquisitions of conjugation and recombination modules are frequent.

Insertion Sequences show diverse recent activities in Cyanobacteria and Archaea

Background

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) play an essential role in genome rearrangement and evolution, and are widely used as an important genetic tool.

Results

In this article, we present genetic maps of recently active Insertion Sequence (IS) elements, the simplest form of MGEs, for all sequenced cyanobacteria and archaea, predicted based on the previously identified ~1,500 IS elements. Our predicted IS maps are consistent with the NCBI annotations of the IS elements. By linking the predicted IS elements to various characteristics of the organisms under study and the organism's living conditions, we found that (a) the activities of IS elements heavily depend on the environments where the host organisms live; (b) the number of recently active IS elements in a genome tends to increase with the genome size; (c) the flanking regions of the recently active IS elements are significantly enriched with genes encoding DNA binding factors, transporters and enzymes; and (d) IS movements show no tendency to disrupt operonic structures.

Conclusion

This is the first genome-scale maps of IS elements with detailed structural information on the sequence level. These genetic maps of recently active IS elements and the several interesting observations would help to improve our understanding of how IS elements proliferate and how they are involved in the evolution of the host genomes.

Identification and analysis of essential genes in Haemophilus influenzae

The human respiratory pathogen Haemophilus influenzae, a Gram-negative bacterium, is the first free-living organism to have its complete genome sequenced, providing the opportunity to apply genomic-scale approaches to study gene function. This chapter provides an overview of a highly efficient, in vitro mariner transposon-based method that exploits the natural transformation feature of this organism for the identification of essential genes. In addition, we describe strategies for conditional expression systems that would facilitate further analysis of this class of genes. Finally, we outline a method based on the approach used in H. influenzae for identifying essential genes that can be applied to other bacteria that are not naturally transformable.

Signature Tagged Mutagenesis of Haemophilus influenzae identifies genes required for in vivo survival

The pathogenic bacterium Haemophilus influenzae causes meningitis, epiglottitis, pneumonia, otitis media and other infections. To further understand the genetic basis of invasive disease and to inform about the bacterium's requirements in an in vivo environment, we analysed a library of 1632 insertional Tn1545 -Delta3 transposon mutants for their capacity to cause systemic infection in an animal model. We identified 25 genes that are potentially essential for H. influenzae invasive disease, and are candidates for further exploratory research. Seven of the genes encode hypothetical proteins, the function of six of which could be tentatively assigned on the basis of functional motifs and low homology to other bacterial genes. Eleven genes encode central metabolic enzymes or transporters; eight encode proteins that interact with DNA or modify other proteins; and four encode enzymes involved in the elaboration of classical virulence determinants. Two genes have no known function. Independent mutagenesis of six of the 25 genes and determination of the competitive index confirmed that these genes are important or essential to the organism in an in vivo environment. This genome-wide analysis has identified metabolic and other genes required during invasive disease, and the findings may lead to new interventions to prevent and treat H. influenzae infections.

Implications of sequencing bacterial genomes for pathogenesis and vaccine development

Improvements in homology search methodology and functional predictions are being complemented by the increase in the volume of sequence data with which comparative analyses can be performed. The experimental methods needed for investigation of gene function and expression in a variety of model systems of infection continue to develop. The identification of surface-exposed microbial structures and their conservation in natural populations of pathogenic species offers prospects for developing novel vaccines. A major challenge is the development of efficient screening methods to select the most promising candidates, such as immunisation with DNA.