Harmless E. coli strains are normally found in the intestines of
many animals, including humans, but some strains can cause diseases.
Siegele and her co-workers at the University of California San
Francisco, Nara Institute of Science Technology and Purdue University
have devised a novel method that allows rapid and large-scale studies
of the E. coli genes. The researchers believe their new method,
described in the current online issue of Nature Methods, will allow
them to gain a better understanding of the E. coli gene functions.
The principle behind this new method is genetic interaction.
Interaction between genes produces observable effects, and this allows
researchers to identify the gene functions. The research team has
called their new method GIANT-Coli, short for genetic interaction
analysis technology for E. coli.
The team believes that its method has great potential to
quicken the progress of discovering new gene functions. The use of
GIANT-Coli has already allowed researchers to identify some previously
unknown genetic interactions in E. coli.
To study genetic interaction, researchers need to use what
they call double-mutant strains. GIANT-Coli allows large-scale
generation of these double-mutant strains (high-throughput generation).
And this is the first time that a high-throughput generation method for
double mutants of E. coli has been developed.
Why is it so important to know the E. coli better? "Much of
what we know about other bacteria, including the more dangerous ones
like Vibrio cholerae, comes from our knowledge of E. coli," says
Siegele. "The E. coli is a model organism."
Siegele says that GIANT-Coli can be developed to study genetic
interactions in other bacteria, and because some proteins are conserved
from bacteria to humans, perhaps some of the results can even be
extrapolated to gene function in humans. Moreover, Siegele points out
that the method has obvious application in medicine because
understanding gene functions in harmful bacteria will help in
developing better treatment approaches.
