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Functional Genomics of Microbial Pathogens for Crop Improvement

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Microbial Genomics in Sustainable Agroecosystems

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Abstract

Sequencing bacterial genomes over the past two decades has opened a new era in the analysis of pathogenic bacteria. Analyses of genomic sequences provided important insights into evolution of pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance. Genomic comparison between pathogenic bacteria and their less harmful relatives showed that virulence factors may be acquired by horizontal transfer of pathogenicity islands. Therefore, in addition to the presence of virulence and antivirulence genes, several features of the bacterial genome such as the GþC content, the genome size, and the proportion of genes encoding specific functions could help identify pathogens and assess their intrinsic virulence. Genomic information provides a background for additional high-throughput functional studies such as in silico metabolic modelling and wet-lab experimentation at the RNA and protein levels. Transcriptome studies of microbial pathogens using microarrays and RNA sequencing are particularly focused on changes in gene expression. Genome-wide targeted gene inactivation has been used to construct mutants and identify those with an altered phenotype. Targeted inactivation has been difficult to do in bacteria showing barriers to transformation. Although the role of bacteriophages in the evolution, virulence, and antibiotic resistance of bacteria has been recognized, only a few functional genomics studies of these viruses have been performed so far. Such studies are important for use of bacteriophages and their proteins in bacterial identification and infection control. It has been shown that several human diseases and disorders correlate with changes in microbiota profiles, suggesting that bacterial communities may play a causative role of disease. In conclusion, the expanding field of functional genomics provides powerful tools and insights for assessing the contribution of pathogens and microbial communities to disease as well as the characteristics of the host response and will contribute to development of new prevention and therapeutic strategies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu, India

    Neelam Chaudhary

  2. Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India

    Arun Kumar

  3. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India

    Baudh Bharti

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  1. Neelam Chaudhary
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  2. Arun Kumar
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  3. Baudh Bharti
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular and Cellular Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Vijay Tripathi

  2. Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Pradeep Kumar

  3. Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Pooja Tripathi

  4. Department of Botany, Kamla Nehru P.G. College, Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Amit Kishore

  5. Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh, India

    Madhu Kamle

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Chaudhary, N., Kumar, A., Bharti, B. (2019). Functional Genomics of Microbial Pathogens for Crop Improvement. In: Tripathi, V., Kumar, P., Tripathi, P., Kishore, A., Kamle, M. (eds) Microbial Genomics in Sustainable Agroecosystems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9860-6_9

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