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Title: The essential gene set of a photosynthetic organism

Abstract

Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 is a model organism used for studying photosynthesis and the circadian clock, and it is being developed for the production of fuel, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. To identify a comprehensive set of genes and intergenic regions that impacts fitness in S. elongatus, we created a pooled library of ~250,000 transposon mutants and used sequencing to identify the insertion locations. By analyzing the distribution and survival of these mutants, we identified 718 of the organism's 2,723 genes as essential for survival under laboratory conditions. The validity of the essential gene set is supported by its tight overlap with wellconserved genes and its enrichment for core biological processes. The differences noted between our dataset and these predictors of essentiality, however, have led to surprising biological insights. One such finding is that genes in a large portion of the TCA cycle are dispensable, suggesting that S. elongatus does not require a cyclic TCA process. Furthermore, the density of the transposon mutant library enabled individual and global statements about the essentiality of noncoding RNAs, regulatory elements, and other intergenic regions. In this way, a group I intron located in tRNA Leu , which has been used extensively for phylogenetic studies,more » was shown here to be essential for the survival of S. elongatus. Our survey of essentiality for every locus in the S. elongatus genome serves as a powerful resource for understanding the organism's physiology and defines the essential gene set required for the growth of a photosynthetic organism.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [2];  [1]
  1. Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093,
  2. Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,
  3. Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093,
  4. Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1235172
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1378675
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 112 Journal Issue: 48; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; RB-TnSeq; transposon mutagenesis; Tn-seq; cyanobacteria; photosynthesis

Citation Formats

Rubin, Benjamin E., Wetmore, Kelly M., Price, Morgan N., Diamond, Spencer, Shultzaberger, Ryan K., Lowe, Laura C., Curtin, Genevieve, Arkin, Adam P., Deutschbauer, Adam, and Golden, Susan S. The essential gene set of a photosynthetic organism. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1519220112.
Rubin, Benjamin E., Wetmore, Kelly M., Price, Morgan N., Diamond, Spencer, Shultzaberger, Ryan K., Lowe, Laura C., Curtin, Genevieve, Arkin, Adam P., Deutschbauer, Adam, & Golden, Susan S. The essential gene set of a photosynthetic organism. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519220112
Rubin, Benjamin E., Wetmore, Kelly M., Price, Morgan N., Diamond, Spencer, Shultzaberger, Ryan K., Lowe, Laura C., Curtin, Genevieve, Arkin, Adam P., Deutschbauer, Adam, and Golden, Susan S. 2015. "The essential gene set of a photosynthetic organism". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519220112.
@article{osti_1235172,
title = {The essential gene set of a photosynthetic organism},
author = {Rubin, Benjamin E. and Wetmore, Kelly M. and Price, Morgan N. and Diamond, Spencer and Shultzaberger, Ryan K. and Lowe, Laura C. and Curtin, Genevieve and Arkin, Adam P. and Deutschbauer, Adam and Golden, Susan S.},
abstractNote = {Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 is a model organism used for studying photosynthesis and the circadian clock, and it is being developed for the production of fuel, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. To identify a comprehensive set of genes and intergenic regions that impacts fitness in S. elongatus, we created a pooled library of ~250,000 transposon mutants and used sequencing to identify the insertion locations. By analyzing the distribution and survival of these mutants, we identified 718 of the organism's 2,723 genes as essential for survival under laboratory conditions. The validity of the essential gene set is supported by its tight overlap with wellconserved genes and its enrichment for core biological processes. The differences noted between our dataset and these predictors of essentiality, however, have led to surprising biological insights. One such finding is that genes in a large portion of the TCA cycle are dispensable, suggesting that S. elongatus does not require a cyclic TCA process. Furthermore, the density of the transposon mutant library enabled individual and global statements about the essentiality of noncoding RNAs, regulatory elements, and other intergenic regions. In this way, a group I intron located in tRNA Leu , which has been used extensively for phylogenetic studies, was shown here to be essential for the survival of S. elongatus. Our survey of essentiality for every locus in the S. elongatus genome serves as a powerful resource for understanding the organism's physiology and defines the essential gene set required for the growth of a photosynthetic organism.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1519220112},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1235172}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
issn = {0027-8424},
number = 48,
volume = 112,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1519220112

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 112 works
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