RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Large-scale Genetic Characterization of a Model Sulfate-Reducing Bacterium
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.01.13.426591
DO 10.1101/2021.01.13.426591
A1 Valentine V. Trotter
A1 Maxim Shatsky
A1 Morgan N. Price
A1 Thomas R. Juba
A1 Grant M. Zane
A1 Kara B. De León
A1 Erica L. Majumder
A1 Qin Gui
A1 Rida Ali
A1 Kelly M. Wetmore
A1 Jennifer V. Kuehl
A1 Adam P. Arkin
A1 Judy D. Wall
A1 Adam M. Deutschbauer
A1 John-Marc Chandonia
A1 Gareth P. Butland
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/13/2021.01.13.426591.abstract
AB Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are obligate anaerobes that can couple their growth to the reduction of sulfate. Despite the importance of SRB to global nutrient cycles and their damage to the petroleum industry, our molecular understanding of their physiology remains limited. To systematically provide new insights into SRB biology, we generated a randomly barcoded transposon mutant library in the model SRB Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough (DvH) and used this genome-wide resource to assay the importance of its genes under a range of metabolic and stress conditions. In addition to defining the essential gene set of DvH, we identified a conditional phenotype for 1,137 non-essential genes. Through examination of these conditional phenotypes, we were able to make a number of novel insights into our molecular understanding of DvH, including how this bacterium synthesizes vitamins. For example, we identified DVU0867 as an atypical L-aspartate decarboxylase required for the synthesis of pantothenic acid, provided the first experimental evidence that biotin synthesis in DvH occurs via a specialized acyl carrier protein and without methyl esters, and demonstrated that the uncharacterized dehydrogenase DVU0826:DVU0827 is necessary for the synthesis of pyridoxal phosphate. In addition, we used the mutant fitness data to identify genes involved in the assimilation of diverse nitrogen sources, and gained insights into the mechanism of inhibition of chlorate and molybdate. Our large-scale fitness dataset and RB-TnSeq mutant library are community-wide resources that can be used to generate further testable hypotheses into the gene functions of this environmentally and industrially important group of bacteria.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.