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Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance

Biomedical Sciences: Molecular Biology and Human Genetics

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Main Author: Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo
Other Authors: Klopper, Marisa
Format: Thesis
Language:en_ZA
Published: 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo
author2 Klopper, Marisa
author_browse Klopper, Marisa
Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo
author_facet Klopper, Marisa
Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo
author_sort Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo
collection Thesis
description Biomedical Sciences: Molecular Biology and Human Genetics
format Thesis
id oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/124273
institution Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
language en_ZA
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:44:49.127Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
publishDateSort 2021
record_format dspace
source_str SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository
spelling oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/124273 Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo Klopper, Marisa Streicher, Lizma Williams, Monique Van Rie, Annelies Mycobacterium smegmatis Mycobacterium tuberculosis Genetic manipulation Point mutation Homologous recombination Homologous recombineering Isoniazid Clofazimine Bedaquiline MGIT MIC Tuberculosis Biomedical Sciences: Molecular Biology and Human Genetics Functional genomic studies are limited by difficulties surrounding the construction of in vitro Mycobacterium tuberculosis mutants using site-directed mutagenesis. We aimed to use different mutagenesis techniques to insert different point mutations into M. tuberculosis to determine their roles in drug-resistance, or for further physiological investigations in future studies. In this study we showed proof-of-concept in M. smegmatis on the feasibility of constructing double point mutations using two-step homologous recombineering. Our results showed that it is possible to sequentially introduce two independent point mutations in different genes of the same genome by homologous recombineering. This was achieved in M. smegmatis with katG Pro347His and gyrA Ala288Asp point mutations, which was confirmed to be resistant to isoniazid (INH; ˃4 μg/ml) and ofloxacin (OFX; 0.5μg/ml). Furthermore, homologous recombination and homologous recombineering were used to attempt to insert a point mutation in M. tuberculosis H37Rv for investigation of the alternative roles of the inhA promoter C-15T mutation. We achieved the construction of the inhA promoter mutant with homologous recombination. A Luria Delbrück assay was also employed to study whether a drug-resistant genetic background would preferentially result in the acquisition of inhA promoter mutations in an ofloxacin (OFX) resistant M. tuberculosis Beijing mutant strain (B01) with a gyrA Asp94Gly compared to its progenitor strain. The Luria Delbrück assay showed that it may be impossible to induce inhA promoter mutations by INH selection pressure in an in vitro system in the strain genetic backgrounds chosen for this study. We also investigated the association of two different mutations, rv0678 Thr33Ala and atpE Ile66Val, with bedaquiline (BDQ) and clofazimine (CLZ) resistance. This was done by the insertion of each of these mutations into M. tuberculosis H37Rv by homologous recombineering and recombination, respectively in separate experiments. Whole genome sequencing was used to confirm the genetic background of all the genetically manipulated in vitro M. tuberculosis mutants, as well as the progenitor. BDQ, CFZ and INH MIC determination for the mutant isolates was achieved using the Mycobacterium Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) system to show the association between the manipulated genotypes and their phenotypes. The MGIT MIC determination confirmed that the inhA promoter C-15T mutation confers low-level INH resistance (MIC of ≥0.1μg/ml), while rv0678 Thr33Ala mediates high-level BDQ and CFZ resistance (MIC of ≥1.0μg/ml) and atpE Ile66Val confers low-level BDQ (MIC of 0.25μg/ml) and CFZ resistance (MIC of 0.5μg/ml). In conclusion, homologous recombination and homologous recombineering were both efficient in generating mycobacterial mutants. However, homologous recombination proved more efficient in M. tuberculosis than homologous recombineering. Proof-of-concept in M. smegmatis demonstrated that double katG (Pro347His) | gyrA (Ala288Asp) point mutations can be introduced in a single strain. While in vitro phenotypic drug susceptibility testing confirmed that katG (Pro347His) caused high-level INH resistance, and gyrA (Ala288Asp) caused low-level OFX resistance in M. smegmatis. The M. tuberculosis inhA C-15T mutation caused low-level INH resistance in vitro. However, C-15T mutation appears to not be acquired spontaneously during in vitro INH selection. While M. tuberculosis rv0678 Thr33Ala and atpE Ile66Val mutations caused an increase in the MIC values for BDQ and CFZ, compared to the wild-type progenitor. 2021-11-09T16:04:42Z 2022-02-22T10:22:02Z 2022-11-01T03:00:12Z 2021-09-06 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/124273 en_ZA application/pdf
spellingShingle Mycobacterium smegmatis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Genetic manipulation
Point mutation
Homologous recombination
Homologous recombineering
Isoniazid
Clofazimine
Bedaquiline
MGIT MIC
Tuberculosis
Otum, Christian Chukwuezugo
Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
title Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
title_full Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
title_fullStr Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
title_full_unstemmed Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
title_short Genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
title_sort genetic manipulation of mycobacterial strains using different techniques to determine the role of specific mutations associated with drug resistance
topic Mycobacterium smegmatis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Genetic manipulation
Point mutation
Homologous recombination
Homologous recombineering
Isoniazid
Clofazimine
Bedaquiline
MGIT MIC
Tuberculosis
url http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/124273
work_keys_str_mv AT otumchristianchukwuezugo geneticmanipulationofmycobacterialstrainsusingdifferenttechniquestodeterminetheroleofspecificmutationsassociatedwithdrugresistance