High-throughput characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene function across diverse conditions.
Dinshaw KM, Lien KA, Knight M, Ouonkap SVY, Liu H
Antimicrobial Resistance
Genetic screening tools like this one are being adapted for plant pathogens — the same approach could soon reveal why fungal or bacterial blights devastate your tomatoes or apple trees, and point toward targeted treatments that don't harm beneficial soil microbes.
Researchers built a faster way to figure out what each gene in the tuberculosis bacterium actually does, almost like giving every gene a unique ID tag so you can track thousands at once in a single experiment. Running nearly 100 experiments, they discovered how the bacterium eats certain sugars and acids, and found a gene that helps it shrug off a brand-new antibiotic. None of this directly involves plants, but the genetic toolkit they created mirrors methods increasingly used to study the microbes that attack crops and garden plants.
Key Findings
A pooled barcode transposon library enabled 95 high-throughput genetic screens across carbon sources, nitrogen sources, stressors, and antibiotics — far exceeding traditional throughput.
187 previously unknown gene functions were uncovered across 37 members of the enigmatic pe/ppe gene family, including a proposed lactate import pathway involving the ESX-5 secretion system.
A novel gene mutation conferring resistance to pretomanid, a newly approved tuberculosis antibiotic, was identified — raising concern for emerging drug resistance.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a high-throughput genetic screening tool to rapidly test the function of thousands of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB bacterium) genes across 95 different conditions, uncovering how the bacterium survives stress, metabolizes unusual nutrients, and resists a new antibiotic.
Abstract Preview
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a human bacterial pathogen that establishes chronic infection in the lung. Although the genome of Mtb was sequenced nearly 25 years ago, the genetic basis of Mtb...
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