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Transcriptomics as a tool to discover new antibacterial targets

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Abstract

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, multiple drug-resistance, and extremely drug-resistant strains demonstrates the need for improved strategies to discover new drug-based compounds. The development of transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics has provided new tools for global studies of living organisms. However, the compendium of expression profiles produced by these methods has introduced new scientific challenges into antimicrobial research. In this review, we discuss the practical value of transcriptomic techniques as well as their difficulties and pitfalls. We advocate the construction of new databases of transcriptomic data, using standardized formats in addition to standardized models of bacterial and yeast similar to those used in systems biology. The inclusion of proteomic and metabolomic data is also essential, as the resulting networks can provide a landscape to rationally predict and exploit new drug targets and to understand drug synergies.

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Acknowledgments

MV is member of the ENABLE (European Gram Negative Antibacterial Engine) European consortium (IMI-ND4BB, http://www.imi.europa.eu/content/enable). We thank Wendy Ran for copy-editing the manuscript.

Author contribution

AD conceived of the review and its format. All authors significantly contributed to the content of the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Genetics, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de los Drs. de la Reina s/n, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Ángel Domínguez & M. Carmen López

  2. Department of Cell Biology & Pathology, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Elisa Muñoz

  3. Department of Medicine, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Miguel Cordero

  4. Department of Microbiology & Ecology, Universitat de Valencia/Estudi General (UVEG), Valencia, Spain

    José Pedro Martínez

  5. Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Miguel Viñas

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  1. Ángel Domínguez
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  2. Elisa Muñoz
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  3. M. Carmen López
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  4. Miguel Cordero
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  5. José Pedro Martínez
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Correspondence to Ángel Domínguez.

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Domínguez, Á., Muñoz, E., López, M.C. et al. Transcriptomics as a tool to discover new antibacterial targets. Biotechnol Lett 39, 819–828 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-017-2319-0

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