Construction of Gene Deletion Mutants in Teredinibacter Turnerae to Determine Gene Function

Abstract

Teredinibacter turnerae is a bacterial endosymbiont of marine bivalve mollusks of the family Teredinidae¹.  T. turnerae has the ability to fix nitrogen and to use cellulose as a carbon source, an asset which it confers to its host as well¹. This bacterium also produces anti-microbial compounds to inhibit the growth of transient microbes in shipworms². Sequencing of the T. turnerae (strain T7901) genome was recently completed, and has led to the identification of nine polyketide synthesis or non-ribosomal peptide synthesis biosynthesis regions potentially encoding bioactive compounds¹.  So far, only two regions are characterized.  Region two is known to code for production of tartralon (an anti-microbial compound), while region seven is known to code for turnerbactin (a triscatecholate siderophore) ¹.  In this study, I construct two separate single gene deletion mutants (ΔTERTU_1990 and DTERTU_2288,located in regions one and three respectively) to aid in the characterization of the genes.

References

1. Yang, J. C. et al. The complete genome of Teredinibacter turnerae T7901: an intracellular endosymbiont of marine wood-boring bivalves (shipworms). PloS One 4,e6085 (2009).

2. Trindade-Silva, A. E. et al. Physiological traits of the symbiotic bacterium Teredinibacter turnerae isolated from the mangrove shipworm Neoteredo reynei. Genet. Mol. Biol. 32, 572–581 (2009).