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Identification of essential genes in C. jejuni genome highlights hyper-variable plasticity regions

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Abstract

A microarray transposon-based tracking approach was used to identify Campylobacter jejuni genes which are required for cell growth at 37°C, under a microaerophilic atmosphere and on a rich Mueller–Hinton medium. A transposon-based mutant library, comprised of 7,201 individual mutants was constructed, representing 4.48× coverage of the genome. An analysis of genes lacking a transposon insertion revealed 195 essential gene candidates. The function of these genes represent many of the expected core functions of the cell, such as energy metabolism, macromolecule and cofactor biosynthesis, cell structural proteins as well as basic cell processes. Forty-nine hypothetical proteins were also identified, further underlining the importance of currently unknown proteins and pathways within C. jejuni. Unlike other bacteria, the essential genes were not uniformly distributed along the chromosome with three main regions lacking essential genes. These particular regions corresponded to known hyper-variable plasticity regions of C. jejuni genome indicating, as expected, that these regions are dispensable in any given C. jejuni strain. Overall, this work identified dispensable and essential genes in C. jejuni that will ultimately lead to a better understanding of Campylobacter physiology.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (to AS). The authors would like to thank James Butcher for its assistance in the design of Fig. 4.

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  1. Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON, K1H 8M5, Canada

    Martin Stahl & Alain Stintzi

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  1. Martin Stahl
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  2. Alain Stintzi
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Correspondence to Alain Stintzi.

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Stahl, M., Stintzi, A. Identification of essential genes in C. jejuni genome highlights hyper-variable plasticity regions. Funct Integr Genomics 11, 241–257 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-011-0214-7

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