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Construction of Conditional Knockdown Mutants in Mycobacteria

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Mycobacteria Protocols

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1285))

Abstract

By definition, essential genes are fundamental to bacterial growth, yet the functions of many such genes remain unknown. Essential genes furthermore are central to the activity of most antibacterial drugs and among the most attractive targets for the development of new therapeutics. This chapter describes how synthetic genetic switches that utilize transcriptional repression, controlled proteolysis, or both to silence gene activity can be applied to construct and characterize conditional knockdown (cKD) mutants for essential genes in Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medical College, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Dirk Schnappinger, Kathryn M. O’Brien & Sabine Ehrt

Authors
  1. Dirk Schnappinger
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  2. Kathryn M. O’Brien
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  3. Sabine Ehrt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dirk Schnappinger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Disease Research Inst (IDRI), Seattle, Washington, USA

    Tanya Parish

  2. Infectious Disease Research Inst (IDRI), Seattle, Washington, USA

    David M. Roberts

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Schnappinger, D., O’Brien, K.M., Ehrt, S. (2015). Construction of Conditional Knockdown Mutants in Mycobacteria. In: Parish, T., Roberts, D. (eds) Mycobacteria Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1285. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2450-9_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2450-9_9

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2449-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2450-9

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