Researchers develop a database to aid in identifying key genes for bacterial infections
A team of scientists from the UAB and the CRG have created the BacFITBase database, which characterises bacterial genes relevant to the infection process in live organisms. The new database will make it easier to identify new therapeutic targets for the creation of antibiotics.

A team of researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and from the Centre of Genomic Regulation (CRG) has created the BacFITBase database. Based on the results of the in vivo experiments, researchers systematically characterised the bacterial genes relevant for host cell invasion and infection. All the experiments performed were based on a technique named transposon mutagenesis, where the DNA fragments called transposons are transferred to the organism's pathogenic genes, thereby inactivating them. By doing so, their role in the infection can be observed directly and researchers can determine which are essential for a specific host organism to become infected. Therefore, this database will make it easier to identify target proteins that can help in fighting infectious diseases and accelerate the development of new antimicrobial agents.
The database contains over 90,000 entries with information on specific pathogenic bacterial genes and their contribution to in vivo infectious conditions in five different host species. It includes information on a total of 15 bacteria (two variants of Salmonella enterica, Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Mycobacterium avium, three variants of Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Campylobacter jejuni, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Serratia marcescens and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and 5 model vertebrates (cow, pig, hen, mouse and rabbit), with information across 10 different tissues.
BacFITBase, published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, was developed by researchers from the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Javier Macho and Marc Torrent, alongside researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) Benjamin Lang and Gian Gaetano Tartaglia.
Reference:
Macho Rendón, Javier; Lang, Benjamin; Tartaglia, Gian & Torrent, Marc. BacFITBase: a database to assess the relevance of bacterial genes during host infection. Nucleic Acids Research. (2019). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkz931.
The database can be consulted at:
http://www.tartaglialab.com/bacfitbase