High confidence prediction of essential genes in Burkholderia cenocepacia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Essential genes are absolutely required for the survival of an organism. The identification of essential genes, besides being one of the most fundamental questions in biology, is also of interest for the emerging science of synthetic biology and for the development of novel antimicrobials. New antimicrobial therapies are desperately needed to treat multidrug-resistant pathogens, such as members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.

Methodology/principal findings

We hypothesize that essential genes may be highly conserved within a group of evolutionary closely related organisms. Using a bioinformatics approach we determined that the core genome of the order Burkholderiales consists of 649 genes. All but two of these identified genes were located on chromosome 1 of B

SUBMITTER: Juhas M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3386938 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature