@article{Piya2023,

title = {Systematic and scalable genome-wide essentiality mapping to identify nonessential genes in phages},

author = {Denish Piya and Nicholas Nolan and Madeline L. Moore and Luis A. Ramirez Hernandez and Brady F. Cress and Ry Young and Adam P. Arkin and Vivek K. Mutalik},

editor = {Paula Jauregui},

doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3002416},

issn = {1545-7885},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-12-04},

journal = {PLoS Biol},

volume = {21},

number = {12},

publisher = {Public Library of Science (PLoS)},

abstract = {Phages are one of the key ecological drivers of microbial community dynamics, function, and evolution. Despite their importance in bacterial ecology and evolutionary processes, phage genes are poorly characterized, hampering their usage in a variety of biotechnological applications. Methods to characterize such genes, even those critical to the phage life cycle, are labor intensive and are generally phage specific. Here, we develop a systematic gene essentiality mapping method scalable to new phage–host combinations that facilitate the identification of nonessential genes. As a proof of concept, we use an arrayed genome-wide CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) assay to map gene essentiality landscape in the canonical coliphages λ and P1. Results from a single panel of CRISPRi probes largely recapitulate the essential gene roster determined from decades of genetic analysis for lambda and provide new insights into essential and nonessential loci in P1. We present evidence of how CRISPRi polarity can lead to false positive gene essentiality assignments and recommend caution towards interpreting CRISPRi data on gene essentiality when applied to less studied phages. Finally, we show that we can engineer phages by inserting DNA barcodes into newly identified inessential regions, which will empower processes of identification, quantification, and tracking of phages in diverse applications.},

keywords = {General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, General Biochemistry, General Immunology and Microbiology, General Neuroscience, Genetics and Molecular Biology},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}