scholarly journals Phenotype prediction in anEscherichia colistrain panel

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Galardin ◽  
Alexandra Koumoutsi ◽  
Lucia Herrera-Dominguez ◽  
Juan Antonio Cordero Varela ◽  
Anja Telzerow ◽  
...  

SummaryUnderstanding how genetic variation contributes to phenotypic differences is a fundamental question in biology. Here, we set to predict fitness defects of an individual using mechanistic models of the impact of genetic variants combined with prior knowledge of gene function. We assembled a diverse panel of 696Escherichia colistrains for which we obtained genomes and measured growth phenotypes in 214 conditions. We integrated variant effect predictors to derive gene-level probabilities of loss of function for every gene across strains. We combined these probabilities with information on conditional gene essentiality in the reference K-12 strain to predict the strains’ growth defects, providing significant predictions for up to 38% of tested conditions. The putative causal variants were validated in complementation assays highlighting commonly perturbed pathways in evolution for the emergence of growth phenotypes. Altogether, our work illustrates the power of integrating high-throughput gene function assays to predict the phenotypes of individuals.HighlightsAssembled a reference panel ofE. colistrainsGenotyped and high-throughput phenotyped theE. colireference strain panelReliably predicted the impact of genetic variants in up to 38% of tested conditionsHighlighted common genetic pathways for the emergence of deleterious phenotypes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Beneke ◽  
Eva Gluenz

AbstractThe number of fully sequenced genomes increases steadily but the function of many genes remains unstudied. To accelerate dissection of gene function in Leishmania spp. and other kinetoplastids we developed previously a streamlined pipeline for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, which we termed LeishGEdit [1]. To facilitate high-throughput mutant screens we have adapted this pipeline by barcoding mutants with unique 17-nucleotide barcodes, allowing loss-of-function screens in mixed populations [2]. Here we present primer design and analysis tools that facilitate these bar-seq strategies. We have developed a standalone easy-to-use pipeline to design CRISPR primers suitable for the LeishGEdit toolbox for any given genome and have generated a list of 14,995 barcodes. Barcodes and oligos are now accessible through our website www.leishgedit.net allowing to pursue bar-seq experiments in all currently available TriTrypDB genomes (release 41). This will streamline CRISPR bar-seq assays in kinetoplastids, enabling pooled mutant screens across the community.HighlightsDeveloping tools for pooled bar-seq mutant screens across the kinetoplastid communityDevelopment of a standalone script to design primers suitable for the LeishGEdit toolboxGeneration of 14,995 barcodes that can be used for bar-seq strategies in kinetoplastidsBar-seq primers for all TriTrypDB genomes (release 41) can be obtained from www.leishgedit.net


2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (8) ◽  
pp. 4685-4693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiqing Sheng ◽  
Ji Youn Lim ◽  
Hannah J. Knecht ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
Carolyn J. Hovde

ABSTRACT The human pathogen Escherichia coli O157:H7 causes hemorrhagic colitis and life-threatening sequelae and transiently colonizes healthy cattle at the terminal rectal mucosa. This study analyzed virulence factors important for the clinical manifestations of human E. coli O157:H7 infection for their contribution to the persistence of E. coli in cattle. The colonizing ability of E. coli O157:H7 was compared with those of nonpathogenic E. coli K-12 and isogenic deletion mutants missing Shiga toxin (Stx), the adhesin intimin, its receptor Tir, hemolysin, or the ∼92-kb pO157. Fully ruminant steers received a single rectal application of one E. coli strain so that effects of mucosal attachment and survival at the terminal rectum could be measured without the impact of bacterial passage through the entire gastrointestinal tract. Colonization was monitored by sensitive recto-anal junction mucosal swab culture. Nonpathogenic E. coli K-12 did not colonize as well as E. coli O157:H7 at the bovine terminal rectal mucosa. The E. coli O157:H7 best able to persist had intimin, Tir, and the pO157. Strains missing even one of these factors were recovered in lower numbers and were cleared faster than the wild type. In contrast, E. coli O157:H7 strains that were missing Stx or hemolysin colonized like the wild type. For these three strains, the number of bacteria increased between days 1 and 4 postapplication and then decreased slowly. In contrast, the numbers of noncolonizing strains (K-12, Δtir, and Δeae) decreased from the day of application. These patterns consistently predicted long-term colonization or clearance of the bacteria from the bovine terminal rectal mucosa.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn French ◽  
Jean-Philippe Côté ◽  
Jonathan M. Stokes ◽  
Ray Truant ◽  
Eric D. Brown

ABSTRACT Perturbation of cellular processes is a prevailing approach to understanding biology. To better understand the complicated biology that defines bacterial shape, a sensitive, high-content platform was developed to detect multiple morphological defect phenotypes using microscopy. We examined morphological phenotypes across the Escherichia coli K-12 deletion (Keio) collection at the mid-exponential growth phase, revealing 111 deletions perturbing shape. Interestingly, 64% of these were uncharacterized mutants, illustrating the complex nature of shape maintenance and regulation in bacteria. To understand the roles these genes play in defining morphology, 53 mutants with knockouts resulting in abnormal cell shape were crossed with the Keio collection in high throughput, generating 1,373 synthetic lethal interactions across 1.7 million double deletion mutants. This analysis yielded a highly populated interaction network spanning and linking multiple phenotypes, with a preponderance of interactions involved in transport, oxidation-reduction, and metabolic processes. IMPORTANCE Genetic perturbations of cellular functions are a prevailing approach to understanding cell systems, which are increasingly being practiced in very high throughput. Here, we report a high-content microscopy platform tailored to bacteria, which probes the impact of genetic mutation on cell morphology. This has particular utility in revealing elusive and subtle morphological phenotypes associated with blocks in nonessential cellular functions. We report 111 nonessential mutations impacting E. coli morphology, with nearly half of those genes being poorly annotated or uncharacterized. Further, these genes appear to be tightly linked to transport or redox processes within the cell. The screening platform is simple and low cost and is broadly applicable to any bacterial genomic library or chemical collection. Indeed, this is a powerful tool in understanding the biology behind bacterial shape. IMPORTANCE Genetic perturbations of cellular functions are a prevailing approach to understanding cell systems, which are increasingly being practiced in very high throughput. Here, we report a high-content microscopy platform tailored to bacteria, which probes the impact of genetic mutation on cell morphology. This has particular utility in revealing elusive and subtle morphological phenotypes associated with blocks in nonessential cellular functions. We report 111 nonessential mutations impacting E. coli morphology, with nearly half of those genes being poorly annotated or uncharacterized. Further, these genes appear to be tightly linked to transport or redox processes within the cell. The screening platform is simple and low cost and is broadly applicable to any bacterial genomic library or chemical collection. Indeed, this is a powerful tool in understanding the biology behind bacterial shape.


Author(s):  
Henne Holstege ◽  
Marc Hulsman ◽  
Camille Charbonnier ◽  
Benjamin Grenier-Boley ◽  
Olivier Quenez ◽  
...  

Background: With the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, it is possible to identify rare genetic variants that influence the risk of complex disorders. To date, whole exome sequencing (WES) strategies have shown that specific clusters of damaging rare variants in the TREM2, SORL1 and ABCA7 genes are associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimers Disease (AD), reaching odds ratios comparable with the APOE-ε4 allele, the main common AD genetic risk factor. Here, we set out to identify additional AD-associated genes by an exome-wide investigation of the burden of rare damaging variants in the genomes of AD cases and cognitively healthy controls. Method: We integrated the data from 25,982 samples from the European ADES consortium and the American ADSP consortium. We developed new techniques to homogenise and analyse these data. Carriers of pathogenic variants in genes associated with Mendelian inheritance of dementia were excluded. After quality control, we used 12,652 AD cases and 8,693 controls for analysis. Genes were analysed using a burden analysis, including both non-synonymous and loss-of-function rare variants, the impact of which was prioritised using REVEL. Result: We confirmed that carrying rare protein-damaging genetic variants in TREM2, SORL1 or ABCA7 is associated with increased AD-risk. Moreover, we found that carrying rare damaging variants in the microglial ATP8B4 gene was significantly associated with AD, and we found suggestive evidence that rare variants in ADAM10, ABCA1, ORC6, B3GNT4 and SRC genes associated with increased AD risk. High-impact variants in these genes were mostly extremely rare and enriched in AD patients with earlier ages at onset. Additionally, we identified two suggestive protective associations in CBX3 and PRSS3. We are currently replicating these associations in independent datasets. Conclusion: With our newly developed homogenisation methods, we identified novel genetic determinants of AD which provide further evidence for a pivotal role of APP processing, lipid metabolism, and microglia and neuro-inflammatory processes in AD pathophysiology.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (19) ◽  
pp. 5554-5561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean R. Murray ◽  
David Bermudes ◽  
Karim Suwwan de Felipe ◽  
K. Brooks Low

ABSTRACT Lipid A, a potent endotoxin which can cause septic shock, anchors lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into the outer leaflet of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. MsbB acylates (KDO)2-(lauroyl)-lipid IV-A with myristate during lipid A biosynthesis. Reports of knockouts of the msbB gene describe effects on virulence but describe no evidence of growth defects in Escherichia coli K-12 or Salmonella. Our data confirm the general lack of growth defects in msbB E. coli K-12. In contrast, msbB Salmonella entericaserovar Typhimurium exhibits marked sensitivity to galactose-MacConkey and 6 mM EGTA media. At 37°C in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth, msbB Salmonella cells elongate, form bulges, and grow slowly.msbB Salmonella grow well on LB-no salt (LB-0) agar; however, under specific shaking conditions in LB-0 broth, manymsbB Salmonella cells lyse during exponential growth and a fraction of the cells form filaments. msbB Salmonella grow with a near-wild-type growth rate in MSB (LB-0 containing Mg2+ and Ca2+) broth (23 to 42°C). Extragenic compensatory mutations, which partially suppress the growth defects, spontaneously occur at high frequency, and mutants can be isolated on media selective for faster growing derivatives. One of the suppressor mutations maps at 19.8 centisomes and is a recessive IS10insertional mutation in somA, a gene of unknown function which corresponds to ybjX in E. coli. In addition, random Tn10 mutagenesis carried out in an unsuppressed msbB strain produced a set of Tn10inserts, not in msbB or somA, that correlate with different suppressor phenotypes. Thus, insertional mutations, insomA and other genes, can suppress the msbBphenotype.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter I-Fan Wu ◽  
Curtis Ross ◽  
Deborah A. Siegele ◽  
James C. Hu

ABSTRACTDespite the demonstrated success of genome-wide genetic screens and chemical genomics studies at predicting functions for genes of unknown function or predicting new functions for well-characterized genes, their potential to provide insights into gene function hasn’t been fully explored. We systematically reanalyzed a published high-throughput phenotypic dataset for the model Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli K-12. The availability of high-quality annotation sets allowed us to compare the power of different metrics for measuring phenotypic profile similarity to correctly infer gene function. We conclude that there is no single best method; the three metrics tested gave comparable results for most gene pairs. We also assessed how converting qualitative phenotypes to discrete, qualitative phenotypes affected the association between phenotype and function. Our results indicate that this approach may allow phenotypic data from different studies to be combined to produce a larger dataset that may reveal functional connections between genes not detected in individual studies.


Author(s):  
Vivek K. Mutalik ◽  
Benjamin A. Adler ◽  
Harneet S. Rishi ◽  
Denish Piya ◽  
Crystal Zhong ◽  
...  

AbstractBacteriophages (phages) are critical players in the dynamics and function of microbial communities and drive processes as diverse as global biogeochemical cycles and human health. Phages tend to be predators finely tuned to attack specific hosts, even down to the strain level, which in turn defend themselves using an array of mechanisms. However, to date, efforts to rapidly and comprehensively identify bacterial host factors important in phage infection and resistance have yet to be fully realized. Here, we globally map the host genetic determinants involved in resistance to 14 phylogenetically diverse double-stranded DNA phages using two model Escherichia coli strains (K-12 and BL21) with known sequence divergence to demonstrate strain-specific differences. Using genome-wide loss-of-function and gain-of-function genetic technologies, we are able to confirm previously described phage receptors as well as uncover a number of previously unknown host factors that confer resistance to one or more of these phages. We uncover differences in resistance factors that strongly align with the susceptibility of K-12 and BL21 to specific phage. We also identify both phage specific mechanisms, such as the unexpected role of cyclic-di-GMP in host sensitivity to phage N4, and more generic defenses, such as the overproduction of colanic acid capsular polysaccharide that defends against a wide array of phages. Our results indicate that host responses to phages can occur via diverse cellular mechanisms. Our systematic and high-throughput genetic workflow to characterize phage-host interaction determinants can be extended to diverse bacteria to generate datasets that allow predictive models of how phage-mediated selection will shape bacterial phenotype and evolution. The results of this study and future efforts to map the phage resistance landscape will lead to new insights into the coevolution of hosts and their phage, which can ultimately be used to design better phage therapeutic treatments and tools for precision microbiome engineering.


2018 ◽  
Vol 200 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soonkyu Hwang ◽  
Donghui Choe ◽  
Minseob Yoo ◽  
Sanghyuk Cho ◽  
Sun Chang Kim ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Pyruvate is an important intermediate of central carbon metabolism and connects a variety of metabolic pathways in Escherichia coli . Although the intracellular pyruvate concentration is dynamically altered and tightly balanced during cell growth, the pyruvate transport system remains unclear. Here, we identified a pyruvate transporter in E. coli using high-throughput transposon sequencing. The transposon mutant library (a total of 5 × 10 5 mutants) was serially grown with a toxic pyruvate analog (3-fluoropyruvate [3FP]) to enrich for transposon mutants lacking pyruvate transport function. A total of 52 candidates were selected on the basis of a stringent enrichment level of transposon insertion frequency in response to 3FP treatment. Subsequently, their pyruvate transporter function was examined by conventional functional assays, such as those measuring growth inhibition by the toxic pyruvate analog and pyruvate uptake activity. The pyruvate transporter system comprises CstA and YbdD, which are known as a peptide transporter and a conserved protein, respectively, whose functions are associated with carbon starvation conditions. In addition to the presence of more than one endogenous pyruvate importer, it has been suggested that the E. coli genome encodes constitutive and inducible pyruvate transporters. Our results demonstrated that CstA and YbdD comprise the constitutive pyruvate transporter system in E. coli , which is consistent with the tentative genomic locus previously suggested and the functional relationship with the extracellular pyruvate sensing system. The identification of this pyruvate transporter system provides valuable genetic information for understanding the complex process of pyruvate metabolism in E. coli . IMPORTANCE Pyruvate is an important metabolite as a central node in bacterial metabolism, and its intracellular levels are tightly regulated to maintain its functional roles in highly interconnected metabolic pathways. However, an understanding of the mechanism of how bacterial cells excrete and transport pyruvate remains elusive. Using high-throughput transposon sequencing followed by pyruvate uptake activity testing of the selected candidate genes, we found that a pyruvate transporter system comprising CstA and YbdD, currently annotated as a peptide transporter and a conserved protein, respectively, constitutively transports pyruvate. The identification of the physiological role of the pyruvate transporter system provides valuable genetic information for understanding the complex pyruvate metabolism in Escherichia coli .


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 2030-2037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber J. Schmidtke ◽  
Nancy D. Hanson

ABSTRACT Mutations within the structural gene of ampD can lead to AmpC overproduction and increases in β-lactam MICs in organisms with an inducible ampC. However, identification of mutations alone cannot predict the impact that those mutations have on AmpD function. Therefore, a model system was designed to determine the effect of ampD mutations on ceftazidime MICs using an AmpD− mutant Escherichia coli strain which produced an inducible plasmid-encoded AmpC. ampD genes were amplified by PCR from strains of E. coli, Citrobacter freundii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Also, carboxy-terminal truncations of C. freundii ampD genes were constructed representing deletions of 10, 21, or 25 codons. Amplified ampD products were cloned into pACYC184 containing inducible bla ACT-1-ampR. Plasmids were transformed into E. coli strains JRG582 (AmpD−) and K-12 259 (AmpD+). The strains were evaluated for a derepressed phenotype using ceftazidime MICs. Some mutated ampD genes, including the ampD gene of a derepressed C. freundii isolate, resulted in substantial decreases in ceftazidime MICs (from >256 μg/ml to 12 to 24 μg/ml) for the AmpD− strain, indicating no role for these mutations in derepressed phenotypes. However, ampD truncation products and ampD from a partially derepressed P. aeruginosa strain resulted in ceftazidime MICs of >256 μg/ml, indicating a role for these gene modifications in derepressed phenotypes. The use of this model system indicated that alternative mechanisms were involved in the derepressed phenotype observed in strains of C. freundii and P. aeruginosa. The alternative mechanism involved in the derepressed phenotype of the C. freundii isolate was downregulation of ampD transcription.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gergics ◽  
Cathy Smith ◽  
Hironori Bando ◽  
Alexander A. L. Jorge ◽  
Denise Rockstroh-Lippold ◽  
...  

AbstractPituitary hormone deficiency occurs in ∼1:4,000 live births. Approximately 3% of the cases are due to mutations in the alpha isoform of POU1F1, a pituitary-specific transcriptional activator. We found four separate heterozygous missense variants in unrelated hypopituitarism patients that were predicted to affect a minor isoform, POU1F1 beta, which can act as a transcriptional repressor. These variants retain repressor activity, but they shift splicing to favor the expression of the beta isoform, resulting in dominant negative loss of function. Using a high throughput splicing reporter assay, we tested 1,080 single nucleotide variants in POU1F1. We identified 113 splice disruptive variants, including 23 synonymous variants. We evaluated separate cohorts of hypopituitarism patients and found two different synonymous splice disruptive variants that co-segregate with hypopituitarism. This study underlines the importance of evaluating the impact of variants on splicing and provides a catalog for interpretation of variants of unknown significance in the POU1F1 gene.


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