Discovery of photosynthesis genes through whole-genome sequencing of acetate-requiring mutants of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Large-scale mutant libraries have been indispensable for genetic studies, and the development of next-generation genome sequencing technologies has greatly advanced efforts to analyze mutants. In this work, we sequenced the genomes of 660 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii acetate-requiring mutants, part of a larger photosynthesis mutant collection previously generated by insertional mutagenesis with a linearized plasmid. We identified 554 insertion events from 509 mutants by mapping the plasmid insertion sites through paired-end sequences, in which one end aligned to the plasmid and the other to a chromosomal location. Nearly all (96%) of the events were associated with deletions, duplications, or more complex rearrangements of genomic DNA at the sites of plasmid insertion, and together with deletions that were unassociated with a plasmid insertion, 1470 genes were identified to be affected. Functional annotations of these genes were enriched in those related to photosynthesis, signaling, and tetrapyrrole synthesis as would be expected from a library enriched for photosynthesis mutants. Systematic manual analysis of the disrupted genes for each mutant generated a list of 253 higher-confidence candidate photosynthesis genes, and we experimentally validated two genes that are essential for photoautotrophic growth, CrLPA3 and CrPSBP4. The inventory of candidate genes includes 53 genes from a phylogenomically defined set of conserved genes in green algae and plants. Altogether, 70 candidate genes encode proteins with previously characterized functions in photosynthesis in Chlamydomonas, land plants, and/or cyanobacteria; 14 genes encode proteins previously shown to have functions unrelated to photosynthesis. Among the remaining 169 uncharacterized genes, 38 genes encode proteins without any functional annotation, signifying that our results connect a function related to photosynthesis to these previously unknown proteins. This mutant library, with genome sequences that reveal the molecular extent of the chromosomal lesions and resulting higher-confidence candidate genes, will aid in advancing gene discovery and protein functional analysis in photosynthesis.     

Ethyl methanesulfonate mutant library construction in Gossypium hirsutum L. for allotetraploid functional genomics and germplasm innovation

As the gene pool is exposed to both strain on land resources and a lack of diversity in elite allotetraploid cotton, the acquisition and identification of novel alleles has taken on epic importance in facilitating cotton genetic improvement and functional genomics research. Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) is an excellent mutagen that induces genome‐wide efficient mutations to activate the mutagenic potential of plants with many advantages. The present study established, determined and verified the experimental procedure suitable for EMS‐based mutant library construction as the general reference guide in allotetraploid upland cotton. This optimized method and procedure are efficient, and abundant EMS mutant libraries (approximately 12 000) in allotetraploid cotton were successfully obtained. More than 20 mutant phenotypes were observed and screened, including phenotypes of the leaf, flower, fruit, fiber and plant architecture. Through the plants mutant library, high‐throughput and high‐resolution melting technology‐based variation evaluation detected the EMS‐induced site mutation. Additionally, based on overall genome‐wide mutation analyses by re‐sequencing and mutant library assessment, the examination results demonstrated the ideal quality of the cotton EMS‐treated mutant library constructed in this study with appropriate high mutation density and saturated genome. What is more, the collection is composed of a broad repertoire of mutants, which is the valuable resource for basic genetic research and functional genomics underlying complex allotetraploid traits, as well as cotton breeding.     

Rapid Transposon Liquid Enrichment Sequencing (TnLE-seq) for Gene Fitness Evaluation in Underdeveloped Bacterial Systems

Whole-genome fitness analysis in microbes that uses saturating transposon mutagenesis combined with massively parallel sequencing (Tn-seq) is providing a measure of the contribution of each gene to a given growth condition. With this technique, gene fitness profiles and essential genes are discovered by simultaneous analyses of whether the absence of each gene product alters the growth kinetics of the bacterium. Here we modify the standard Tn-seq procedure to simplify and shorten the process by including delivery of the transposon through conjugation and liquid culture enrichment of the mutant pool, creating transposon liquid enrichment sequencing (TnLE-seq). To illustrate the success of these modifications and the robustness of the procedure, analyses of gene fitness of two cultures of the strictly anaerobic bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough were performed, with growth on lactate as the electron donor and sulfate as the electron acceptor. These data demonstrate reproducibility and provide a base condition for analysis of fitness changes in deletion mutants and in various growth conditions. The procedural modifications will facilitate the application of this powerful genetic analysis to microbes lacking a facile genetic system. Pilot studies produced 2.5 × 10⁵ and 3.4 × 10⁵ unique insertion mutants in the anaerobe Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough grown under typical laboratory conditions in rich medium. These analyses provided two similar high-resolution maps of gene fitness across the genome, and the method was also applied to growth in minimal medium. These results were also compared to the coverage obtained with a ca. 13,000-member cataloged transposon library constructed by sequencing transposon insertion sites in individual mutants.     

Identification of a Lifespan Extending Mutation in the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Cyclin Gene clg1 + by Direct Selection of Long-Lived Mutants

Model organisms such as budding yeast, worms and flies have proven instrumental in the discovery of genetic determinants of aging, and the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a promising new system for these studies. We devised an approach to directly select for long-lived S. pombe mutants from a random DNA insertion library. Each insertion mutation bears a unique sequence tag called a bar code that allows one to determine the proportion of an individual mutant in a culture containing thousands of different mutants. Aging these mutants in culture allowed identification of a long-lived mutant bearing an insertion mutation in the cyclin gene clg1 ⁺. Clg1p, like Pas1p, physically associates with the cyclin-dependent kinase Pef1p. We identified a third Pef1p cyclin, Psl1p, and found that only loss of Clg1p or Pef1p extended lifespan. Genetic and co-immunoprecipitation results indicate that Pef1p controls lifespan through the downstream protein kinase Cek1p. While Pef1p is conserved as Pho85p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and as cdk5 in humans, genome-wide searches for lifespan regulators in S. cerevisiae have never identified Pho85p. Thus, the S. pombe system can be used to identify novel, evolutionarily conserved lifespan extending mutations, and our results suggest a potential role for mammalian cdk5 as a lifespan regulator.     

Isolation and characterization of Schizosaccharomyces pombe cutmutants that block nuclear division but not cytokinesis

By examining cytological phenotypes of 587 temperature-sensitive mutants of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, we obtained 18 mutants which cause cell division in the absence of nuclear division. By genetic analyses, these novel nuclear division arrest mutants can be classified into nine complementation groups (designated cut1 – cut9). The cytological phenotype of cut mutants is similar but not identical to that of DNA topoisomerase II mutants (top2). The cut1⁺ gene was cloned by transformation and shown to complement cut2 as well as cut1, indicating a functional relationship between the two genes. The cut genes are required for nuclear division, but their mutant phenotypes differ from most of the previously identified mutants which block nuclear division and also the subsequent cytokinesis. Fluorescence microscopy indicates that the mitotic chromosomes formed in cut mutant cells are abnormal and fail to separate properly. We suggest that cut mutations, like top2, block mitotic chromosome formation and concomitantly nuclear division, but that cytokinesis proceeds independently of the defects in nuclear division, demonstrating uncoordinated mitotic pathways. A novel mutant nuc1 is also described which shows a cytological phenotype similar to the double mutant of DNA topoisomerases I and II but contains normal levels of both DNA topoisomerase activities.     

A mutation in the gene for trigger factor suppresses the defect in cell division in the divE42 mutant of Escherichia coli K12

A total of sixteen spontaneously generated, independent suppressor mutants was isolated from a mutant (divE42) of Escherichia coli K12 that is defective in cell division. One of the suppressor mutants, designated TR4, had a novel phenotype: it was able to grow at 42°?C but not at 32°?C. The Kohara genomic library was screened for complementing clones. Clone 148 was able to complement the mutation responsible for the cold-sensitive phenotype, and the gene for trigger factor (tig), which encodes a ribosome-associated peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase, was identified as the mutated gene by deletion analysis with the insert DNA from clone 148. DNA sequencing revealed that the mutation in the tig gene of the TR4 suppressor mutant was a single nucleotide insertion (+A) at a distance of 834 nucleotides from the initiation codon for this enzyme. When the wild-type tig gene was introduced into the TR4 suppressor mutant, the bacteria were able to grow at 32°?C but not at 42°?C, an indication that the intergenic suppressor mutation was recessive to the wild-type allele. A model is proposed that accounts for the phenotypes of the divE42 mutant and the TR4 suppressor mutant.     

Sequence-Verified Two-Allele Transposon Mutant Library for Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1

Mutant hunts using comprehensive sequence-defined libraries make it possible to identify virtually all of the nonessential functions required for different bacterial processes. However, the success of such screening depends on the accuracy of mutant identification in the mutant library used. To provide a high-quality library for Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, we created a sequence-verified collection of 9,437 transposon mutants that provides genome coverage and includes two mutants for most genes. Mutants were cherry-picked from a larger library, colony-purified, and resequenced both individually using Sanger sequencing and in a pool using Tn-seq. About 8% of the insertion assignments were corrected, and in the final library nearly 93% of the transposon locations were confirmed by at least one of the resequencing procedures. The extensive sequence verification and inclusion of more than one mutant for most genes should help minimize missed or erroneous genotype-phenotype assignments in studies using the new library.     

Polypeptone Induces Dramatic Cell Lysis in ura4 Deletion Mutants of Fission Yeast

Polypeptone is widely excluded from Schizosaccharomyces pombe growth medium. However, the reasons why polypeptone should be avoided have not been documented. Polypeptone dramatically induced cell lysis in the ura4 deletion mutant when cells approached the stationary growth phase, and this phenotype was suppressed by supplementation of uracil. To determine the specificity of this cell lysis phenotype, we created deletion mutants of other genes involved in de novo biosynthesis of uridine monophosphate (ura1, ura2, ura3, and ura5). Cell lysis was not observed in these gene deletion mutants. In addition, concomitant disruption of ura1, ura2, ura3, or ura5 in the ura4 deletion mutant suppressed cell lysis, indicating that cell lysis induced by polypeptone is specific to the ura4 deletion mutant. Furthermore, cell lysis was also suppressed when the gene involved in coenzyme Q biosynthesis was deleted. This is likely because Ura3 requires coenzyme Q for its activity. The ura4 deletion mutant was sensitive to zymolyase, which mainly degrades (1,3)-beta-D glucan, when grown in the presence of polypeptone, and cell lysis was suppressed by the osmotic stabiliser, sorbitol. Finally, the induction of cell lysis in the ura4 deletion mutant was due to the accumulation of orotidine-5-monophosphate. Cell wall integrity was dramatically impaired in the ura4 deletion mutant when grown in the presence of polypeptone. Because ura4 is widely used as a selection marker in S. pombe, caution needs to be taken when evaluating phenotypes of ura4 mutants.     

Systematic identification and correction of annotation errors in the genetic interaction map of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The yeast mutant collections are a fundamental tool in deciphering genomic organization and function. Over the last decade, they have been used for the systematic exploration of ∼6 000 000 double gene mutants, identifying and cataloging genetic interactions among them. Here we studied the extent to which these data are prone to neighboring gene effects (NGEs), a phenomenon by which the deletion of a gene affects the expression of adjacent genes along the genome. Analyzing ∼90,000 negative genetic interactions observed to date, we found that more than 10% of them are incorrectly annotated due to NGEs. We developed a novel algorithm, GINGER, to identify and correct erroneous interaction annotations. We validated the algorithm using a comparative analysis of interactions from Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We further showed that our predictions are significantly more concordant with diverse biological data compared to their mis-annotated counterparts. Our work uncovered about 9500 new genetic interactions in yeast.     

Integration Profiling of Gene Function With Dense Maps of Transposon Integration

Understanding how complex networks of genes integrate to produce dividing cells is an important goal that is limited by the difficulty in defining the function of individual genes. Current resources for the systematic identification of gene function such as siRNA libraries and collections of deletion strains are costly and organism specific. We describe here integration profiling, a novel approach to identify the function of eukaryotic genes based upon dense maps of transposon integration. As a proof of concept, we used the transposon Hermes to generate a library of 360,513 insertions in the genome of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. On average, we obtained one insertion for every 29 bp of the genome. Hermes integrated more often into nucleosome free sites and 33% of the insertions occurred in ORFs. We found that ORFs with low integration densities successfully identified the genes that are essential for cell division. Importantly, the nonessential ORFs with intermediate levels of insertion correlated with the nonessential genes that have functions required for colonies to reach full size. This finding indicates that integration profiles can measure the contribution of nonessential genes to cell division. While integration profiling succeeded in identifying genes necessary for propagation, it also has the potential to identify genes important for many other functions such as DNA repair, stress response, and meiosis.     

Identification of genes involved in salt tolerance and symbiotic nitrogen fixation in chickpea rhizobium Mesorhizobium ciceri Ca181

In an attempt to find the genes involved in salt tolerance of the highly adaptable chickpea rhizobium strain, Mesorhizobium ciceri Ca181, a Tn5 transposon insertion library was generated and screened to identify five mutants with inability to survive in the presence of 0.1 M NaCl. The genes disrupted in these mutants due to insertion of the transposon were identified by sequencing of Tn5 flanking sequences after inverse PCR. One of the mutants had a disruption in diguanylate cyclase gene which is involved in bacterial biofilm formation and persistence. The second mutant had a disruption in an ABC transporter membrane protein gene, which is involved in the uptake of nutrients and cellular osmoprotection. The third mutant had a disruption in a gene showing homology with rhamnulose 1-phosphate aldolase which has an important role in the central metabolism of L-rhamnulose. The fourth mutant had a disruption in a capsule synthesis gene and the fifth mutant had an insertion in an oxidoreductase gene. When these mutants were inoculated into the host chickpea plant under normal non-saline conditions, they formed symbiotic nodules but with severely reduced nitrogenase activity. Hence, it appears that bacterial ability to adapt to hyper-osmotic salt stress conditions is also important for its nitrogen fixing ability in the chickpea root nodules. Allele mining for variant forms of the identified genes in the germplasm resources of M. ciceri may help in the development of highly adaptive and efficient nitrogen fixing strains of the chickpea rhizobium.     

Heat Resistance and Salt Hypersensitivity in Lactococcus lactis Due to Spontaneous Mutation of llmg_1816 (gdpP) Induced by High-Temperature Growth

During construction of several gene deletion mutants in Lactococcus lactis MG1363 which involved a high-temperature (37.5°C) incubation step, additional spontaneous mutations were observed which resulted in stable heat resistance and in some cases salt-hypersensitive phenotypes. Whole-genome sequencing of one strain which was both heat resistant and salt hypersensitive, followed by PCR and sequencing of four other mutants which shared these phenotypes, revealed independent mutations in llmg_1816 in all cases. This gene encodes a membrane-bound stress signaling protein of the GdpP family, members of which exhibit cyclic dimeric AMP (c-di-AMP)-specific phosphodiesterase activity. Mutations were predicted to lead to single amino acid substitutions or protein truncations. An independent llmg_1816 mutant (Δ1816), created using a suicide vector, also displayed heat resistance and salt hypersensitivity phenotypes which could be restored to wild-type levels following plasmid excision. L. lactis Δ1816 also displayed improved growth in response to sublethal concentrations of penicillin G. High-temperature incubation of a wild-type industrial L. lactis strain also resulted in spontaneous mutation of llmg_1816 and heat-resistant and salt-hypersensitive phenotypes, suggesting that this is not a strain-specific phenomenon and that it is independent of a plasmid integration event. Acidification of milk by the llmg_1816-altered strain was inhibited by lower salt concentrations than the parent strain. This study demonstrates that spontaneous mutations can occur during high-temperature growth of L. lactis and that inactivation of llmg_1816 leads to temperature resistance and salt hypersensitivity.     

Structure and sequence of mutations induced by ionizing radiation at selectable loci in Chinese hamster ovary cells

The spectrum of mutations induced by ionizing radiation at two non-essential genetic loci varies markedly. Those at the adenine phosphoribosyl transferase (aprt) locus predominantly have no detectable alterations of gene structure on Southern blots, while those at the hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (hprt) locus are largely massive deletions eliminating all coding sequence. Insertion mutations were detected at both loci. To characterize the sequence alterations producing the minor changes at the aprt locus, two mutant genes were cloned from lambda genomic libraries and sequenced. One of these mutants proved to be a 20 base-pair deletion formed between two short (3 base-pair) direct repeat sequences, while the second was the result of a 58 base-pair insertion accompanied by a 13 base-pair deletion.     

快速筛选拟南芥受精和早期胚胎发生相关基因的方法

阐明拟南芥受精和早期胚胎发生过程对理解被子植物生殖发育有着重要的指导意义,而利用正向遗传学方法研究拟南芥突变体的表型及其分子机理是探究植物基因功能最常用的一种方法。基于常规的插入突变(包括T-DNA和转座子)、化学诱变(如ethylmethane sulfonate,EMS)和高能射线方法构建的突变体库中假阳性突变体多,难以高效筛选到受精和早期胚胎发生相关基因的突变体。为解决这一难题,本研究建立了一种构建T-DNA插入突变体文库的新方法。即在载体p CAMBIA1302的T-DNA元件上增加花粉特异荧光标记基因(p LAT52∷EGFP),并遗传转化具有四分体花粉的Columbia野生型拟南芥突变体qrt1-2;对获得的突变体库可利用花粉荧光快速排除假阳性突变体,并采用反向PCR(inverse-PCR)扩增技术确定突变位点。此方法在筛选拟南芥受精和早期胚胎发生相关基因突变体上的成功应用表明,其是一种效率高、针对性强、操作相对快捷方便的拟南芥突变体筛选方法。