scispace - formally typeset
Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

High-throughput CRISPRi phenotyping identifies new essential genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The CRISPRi library provides a valuable tool for characterization of pneumococcal genes and pathways and revealed several promising antibiotic targets.
Abstract
Genome-wide screens have discovered a large set of essential genes in the opportunistic human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae However, the functions of many essential genes are still unknown, hampering vaccine development and drug discovery. Based on results from transposon sequencing (Tn-seq), we refined the list of essential genes in S. pneumoniae serotype 2 strain D39. Next, we created a knockdown library targeting 348 potentially essential genes by CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and show a growth phenotype for 254 of them (73%). Using high-content microscopy screening, we searched for essential genes of unknown function with clear phenotypes in cell morphology upon CRISPRi-based depletion. We show that SPD_1416 and SPD_1417 (renamed to MurT and GatD, respectively) are essential for peptidoglycan synthesis, and that SPD_1198 and SPD_1197 (renamed to TarP and TarQ, respectively) are responsible for the polymerization of teichoic acid (TA) precursors. This knowledge enabled us to reconstruct the unique pneumococcal TA biosynthetic pathway. CRISPRi was also employed to unravel the role of the essential Clp-proteolytic system in regulation of competence development, and we show that ClpX is the essential ATPase responsible for ClpP-dependent repression of competence. The CRISPRi library provides a valuable tool for characterization of pneumococcal genes and pathways and revealed several promising antibiotic targets.

read more

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

A decade of advances in transposon-insertion sequencing

TL;DR: The recent applications of TIS to answer overarching biological questions are discussed and emerging and multidisciplinary methods that build on TIS are explored, with an eye towards future applications.
Journal ArticleDOI

A CRISPRi screen in E. coli reveals sequence-specific toxicity of dCas9

TL;DR: It is revealed that guide RNAs sharing specific 5-nucleotide seed sequences can produce strong fitness defects or even kill E. coli regardless of the other 15 nucleotides of guide sequence, and design rules to minimize off-target effects are provided.
Journal ArticleDOI

Genome-wide CRISPR-dCas9 screens in E. coli identify essential genes and phage host factors.

TL;DR: This study demonstrates the usefulness and convenience of pooled genome-wide CRISPR-dCas9 screens in bacteria and paves the way for their broader use as a powerful tool in bacterial genomics.
Journal ArticleDOI

Functional genomics of the rapidly replicating bacterium Vibrio natriegens by CRISPRi.

TL;DR: A genome-wide CRISPR interference screen of the fast-growing Vibrio natriegens bacterium elucidates the make-up of minimal genomes and the metabolic pathways enabling rapid bacterial replication.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Different pathways of choline metabolism in two choline-independent strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae and their impact on virulence.

TL;DR: Observations suggest that the biochemical functions normally dependent on determinants of the pneumococcal lic2 operon may also be carried out in strain Cho(-) by a second set of genetic elements imported from Streptococcus oralis, the choline-independent streptococcal strain that served as the DNA donor in the heterologous transformation event that produced strain R6Cho(-).
Journal ArticleDOI

Transcription Regulation of ezrA and Its Effect on Cell Division of Bacillus subtilis

TL;DR: EzrA is required for efficient cell division during the growth of B. subtilis, despite serving as a negative regulator for Z-ring formation.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Novel Protein, RafX, Is Important for Common Cell Wall Polysaccharide Biosynthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae: Implications for Bacterial Virulence

TL;DR: It is suggested that RafX contributes to the biosynthesis of WTA, which is essential for full pneumococcal virulence, and was significantly attenuated in virulence in a murine sepsis model.
Journal ArticleDOI

Expression and purification of FtsW and RodA from Streptococcus pneumoniae, two membrane proteins involved in cell division and cell growth, respectively.

TL;DR: Both proteins from Streptococcus pneumoniae were overexpressed in Escherichia coli as N-terminal His-tagged fusions and are likely to be folded as they are resistant to trypsin digestion and could be incorporated into reconstituted lipid vesicles.
Related Papers (5)