R. Allyn Forsyth

A genome-wide strategy for the identification of essential genes in Staphylococcus aureus

To address the need for new approaches to antibiotic drug development, we have identified a large number of essential genes for the bacterial pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, using a rapid shotgun antisense RNA method. Staphylococcus aureus chromosomal DNA fragments were cloned into a xylose‐inducible expression plasmid and transformed into S. aureus. Homology comparisons between 658 S. aureus genes identified in this particular antisense screen and the Mycoplasma genitalium genome, which contains 517 genes in total, yielded 168 conserved genes, many of which appear to be essential in M. genitalium and other bacteria. Examples are presented in which expression of an antisense RNA specifically reduces its cognate mRNA. A cell‐based, drug‐screening assay is also described, wherein expression of an antisense RNA confers specific sensitivity to compounds targeting that gene product. This approach enables facile assay development for high throughput screening for any essential gene, independent of its biochemical function, thereby greatly facilitating the search for new antibiotics.

Staphylococcus aureus TargetArray: Comprehensive Differential Essential Gene Expression as a Mechanistic Tool To Profile Antibacterials

ABSTRACT The widespread emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a lack of new pharmaceutical development have catalyzed a need for new and innovative approaches for antibiotic drug discovery. One bottleneck in antibiotic discovery is the lack of a rapid and comprehensive method to identify compound mode of action (MOA). Since a hallmark of antibiotic action is as an inhibitor of essential cellular targets and processes, we identify a set of 308 essential genes in the clinically important pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. A total of 446 strains differentially expressing these genes were constructed in a comprehensive platform of sensitized and resistant strains. A subset of strains allows either target underexpression or target overexpression by heterologous promoter replacements with a suite of tetracycline-regulatable promoters. A further subset of 236 antisense RNA-expressing clones allows knockdown expression of cognate targets. Knockdown expression confers selective antibiotic hypersensitivity, while target overexpression confers resistance. The antisense strains were configured into a TargetArray in which pools of sensitized strains were challenged in fitness tests. A rapid detection method measures strain responses toward antibiotics. The TargetArray antibiotic fitness test results show mechanistically informative biological fingerprints that allow MOA elucidation.

Longitudinal Metagenomic Analysis of Hospital Air Identifies Clinically Relevant Microbes.

We describe the sampling of sixty-three uncultured hospital air samples collected over a six-month period and analysis using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Our primary goals were to determine the longitudinal metagenomic variability of this environment, identify and characterize genomes of potential pathogens and determine whether they are atypical to the hospital airborne metagenome. Air samples were collected from eight locations which included patient wards, the main lobby and outside. The resulting DNA libraries produced 972 million sequences representing 51 gigabases. Hierarchical clustering of samples by the most abundant 50 microbial orders generated three major nodes which primarily clustered by type of location. Because the indoor locations were longitudinally consistent, episodic relative increases in microbial genomic signatures related to the opportunistic pathogens Aspergillus, Penicillium and Stenotrophomonas were identified as outliers at specific locations. Further analysis of microbial reads specific for Stenotrophomonas maltophilia indicated homology to a sequenced multi-drug resistant clinical strain and we observed broad sequence coverage of resistance genes. We demonstrate that a shotgun metagenomic sequencing approach can be used to characterize the resistance determinants of pathogen genomes that are uncharacteristic for an otherwise consistent hospital air microbial metagenomic profile.

Epigenetic Segregation of Microbial Genomes from Complex Samples Using Restriction Endonucleases HpaII and McrB

We describe continuing work to develop restriction endonucleases as tools to enrich targeted genomes of interest from diverse populations. Two approaches were developed in parallel to segregate genomic DNA based on cytosine methylation. First, the methyl-sensitive endonuclease HpaII was used to bind non-CG methylated DNA. Second, a truncated fragment of McrB was used to bind CpG methylated DNA. Enrichment levels of microbial genomes can exceed 100-fold with HpaII allowing improved genomic detection and coverage of otherwise trace microbial genomes from sputum. Additionally, we observe interesting enrichment results that correlate with the methylation states not only of bacteria, but of fungi, viruses, a protist and plants. The methods presented here offer promise for testing biological samples for pathogens and global analysis of population methylomes.