This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Medjahed, H.
Right arrow Articles by Reyrat, J.-M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Medjahed, H.
Right arrow Articles by Reyrat, J.-M.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Medjahed, H.
Right arrow Articles by Reyrat, J.-M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2009, p. 1331-1338, Vol. 75, No. 5
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01914-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Construction of Mycobacterium abscessus Defined Glycopeptidolipid Mutants: Comparison of Genetic Tools{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Halima Medjahed1,2 and Jean-Marc Reyrat1,2*

Université Paris Descartes, Faculté de Médecine Paris Descartes, F-75730 Paris Cedex 15, France,1 INSERM, U570, Unité de Pathogénie des Infections Systémiques, F-75730 Paris Cedex 15, France2

Received 18 August 2008/ Accepted 19 December 2008

Mycobacterium abscessus is a rapidly growing mycobacterial species that can be involved in pulmonary and disseminated infections in immunosuppressed or young cystic fibrosis patients. It is an emerging pathogen and has attracted recent attention due to the numerous cases of infection; furthermore, genomic tools have been developed for this species. Nevertheless, the study of this species has until now been limited to spontaneous variants. We report here a comparison of three different mutagenesis systems—the ts-sacB, the phage, and the recombineering systems—and show that there are important differences in their efficiency for the construction of allelic-exchange mutants. We show, using the mmpL4b gene of the glycopeptidolipid pathway as a target, that allelic-exchange mutants can be constructed with a reasonable efficiency (~7%) using the recombineering system. These observations will facilitate genetic and cellular microbiology experiments involving the construction and use of well-defined mutants to study the virulence determinant of this emerging pathogen.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: INSERM UMR570, Faculté de Médecine Paris Descartes, 156 Rue de Vaugirard, F-75730 Paris Cedex 15, France. Phone: 33 (0)1 40 61 53 79. Fax: 33 (0)1 40 61 56 77. E-mail: jean-marc.reyrat{at}inserm.fr

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 29 December 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2009, p. 1331-1338, Vol. 75, No. 5
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01914-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»