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Genetics and Genomics Forward genetics Reverse genetics Genetic tools for genome-wide analysis Genome scale reverse genetics Signature tagged mutagenesis Synthetic lethal screens Book - 300-304 (mid-page), 306-307, 310 Gain-of-function, 317 synthetic lethal screens.
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Genetics and Genomics • Forward genetics • Reverse genetics • Genetic tools for genome-wide analysis • Genome scale reverse genetics • Signature tagged mutagenesis • Synthetic lethal screens • Book - 300-304 (mid-page), 306-307, 310 Gain-of-function, 317 synthetic lethal screens
Brief review of genetic terms • Types of mutations • Null mutations - loss of function • Hypomorphs - partial loss of function • Hypermorphs - gain of function • Antimorphs - dominant negative
Essential and non-essential genes • What does it mean to be essential? • Genes essential for growth in the laboratory • Genes not essential for growth in the laboratory can be essential in other conditions.
Forward genetics • Isolating mutants that confer a particular phenotype and then identifying the genes involved. • Sporulation defects. • Temperature sensitive mutations.
Reverse genetics • From gene to phenotype - using genetic tools to identify the function of a gene without prior knowledge of its function. • Knockout - screen for phenotype • Overexpression • Ectopic expression • What if none of these approaches yields a phenotype?
Mutational analysis of all genes in a genome • B. subtilis example - reverse genetics en masse. • Essential genes • Defining the minimal genome • Potential problems • Essential genes • Operons • Redundant genes
Making systematic mutations to identify gene function. • High efficiency transformation • Integrational plasmid • Inability to replicate in bacterium studied • Reporter gene to study expression • Determine if gene is expressed under conditions tested. • Inducible promoter to express downstream genes. • Remove effects of polarity
Findings from B. subtilis • Only 271 of 4106 genes are essential for growth • Many genes are involved in a few metabolic functions (DNA, RNA, protein, cell wall) • 70% of essential genes have homologs in eukaryotes and archaea. • Redundant genes missed essential functions • Growth in rich medium - one condition.
Identifying essential functions that are controlled by redundant genes. • Synthetic lethal screens • Synthetic lethal = when two mutations that are not essential for growth individually are essential when combined. • Done on a genome wide scale for yeast.
Signature tagged mutagenesis • Ability to screen many mutants at the same time for a loss-of-function phenotype. • Transposon mutagenesis - each transpososn has a unique ~40 bp sequence. • Example - identify mutants that can no longer infect a mouse. • Figure - Hayes, 2003. Annual Review of Genetics.
In vitro transposition • Many organisms do not have well characterized transposons for mutagenesis. • Can mutagenize genomic DNA in vitro - then transfer mutations back inside the cell. • Successful in strains that do not have genetic tools available. • Need a good drug marker from organism of interest to get this to work.