Efficient allelic exchange and transposon mutagenesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Open Access
- 30 September 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 94 (20), 10955-10960
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.20.10955
Abstract
A better understanding of Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence mechanisms is highly dependent on the design of efficient mutagenesis systems. A system enabling the positive selection of insertional mutants having lost the delivery vector was developed. It uses ts-sacB vectors, which combine the counterselective properties of the sacB gene and a mycobacterial thermosensitive origin of replication and can therefore be efficiently counterselected on sucrose at 39°C. This methodology allowed the construction of M. tuberculosis transposition mutant libraries. Greater than 106 mutants were obtained, far exceeding the number theoretically required to obtain at least one insertion in every nonessential gene. This system is also efficient for gene exchange mutagenesis as demonstrated with the purC gene: 100% of the selected clones were allelic exchange mutants. Therefore, a single, simple methodology has enabled us to develop powerful mutagenesis systems, the lack of which was a major obstacle to the genetic characterization of M. tuberculosis.Keywords
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