One-Step Engineering of a Stable, Selectable Marker-Free Autoluminescent Acinetobacter baumannii for Rapid Continuous Assessment of Drug Activity

J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2019 Sep 28;29(9):1488-1493. doi: 10.4014/jmb.1905.05006.

Abstract

The rising cases of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab) and the lack of effective drugs call for quick attention. Here, based on a Tn7 transposon and Xer/dif system, we constructed a stable, selectable marker-free autoluminescent Ab capable of producing visible light without extra substrates. Utilization of this autoluminescent reporter strain has the potential to reduce the time, effort and costs required for the evaluation of activities of anti-Ab drug candidates in vitro.

Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii; Autoluminescent; Tn7; Xer/dif recombination system; marker-free.

MeSH terms

  • Acinetobacter baumannii / drug effects*
  • Acinetobacter baumannii / genetics*
  • Acinetobacter baumannii / growth & development
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Colony Count, Microbial
  • DNA Transposable Elements / genetics
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial / drug effects
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial / genetics
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Genome, Bacterial / genetics
  • Luminescent Proteins / genetics*
  • Luminescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests / methods*
  • Mutagenesis, Insertional
  • Sequence Deletion

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA Transposable Elements
  • Luminescent Proteins