Open AccessA set of shuttle plasmids for gene expression in Acinetobacter baumannii
Author(s) -
Jing Jie,
Xiao Chu,
Dan Li,
ZhaoQing Luo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0246918
Subject(s) - plasmid , acinetobacter baumannii , biology , acinetobacter calcoaceticus , acinetobacter , gene , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , pseudomonas aeruginosa
Infections caused by the emerging opportunistic bacterial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii are occurring at increasingly alarming rates, and such increase in incidence is further compounded by the development of wide spread multidrug-resistant strains. Yet, our understanding of its pathogenesis and biology remains limited which can be attributed in part to the scarce of tools for molecular genetic analysis of this bacterium. Plasmids based on pWH1277 originally isolated from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus are the only vehicles currently available for ectopic gene expression in Acinetobacter species, which restricts experiments that require simultaneous analysis of multiple genes. Here, we found that plasmids of the IncQ group are able to replicate in A . baumannii and can stably co-reside with derivatives of pWH1277. Furthermore, we have constructed a series of four plasmids that allow inducible expression of Flag-tagged proteins in A . baumannii by arabinose or isopropyl β-d-1-thiogalactopyranoside. Together with constructs previously developed, these plasmids will accommodate the need in genetic analysis of this increasingly important pathogen.