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

The FUN of identifying gene function in bacterial pathogens; insights from Salmonella functional genomics.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2013 Sep 7;
Authors: Hammarlöf DL, Canals R, Hinton JC
Abstract
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.
PMID: 24021902 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Current Opinion in Microbiology - September 7, 2013 Category: Microbiology Authors: Hammarlöf DL, Canals R, Hinton JC Tags: Curr Opin Microbiol Source Type: research