Gene editing tools for mycoplasmas: references and future directions for efficient genome manipulation

Gang Zhao; Doukun Lu; Min Li; Yujiong Wang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1191812

Gene editing tools for mycoplasmas: references and future directions for efficient genome manipulation

Front Microbiol. 2023 May 18:14:1191812. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1191812. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Gang Zhao^{1

2

3}, Doukun Lu³, Min Li^{1

2}, Yujiong Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Conservation and Utilization of Special Biological Resources in the Western China, Yinchuan, China.
² School of Life Sciences, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China.
³ National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Mycoplasmas are successful pathogens that cause debilitating diseases in humans and various animal hosts. Despite the exceptionally streamlined genomes, mycoplasmas have evolved specific mechanisms to access essential nutrients from host cells. The paucity of genetic tools to manipulate mycoplasma genomes has impeded studies of the virulence factors of pathogenic species and mechanisms to access nutrients. This review summarizes several strategies for editing of mycoplasma genomes, including homologous recombination, transposons, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas system, and synthetic biology. In addition, the mechanisms and features of different tools are discussed to provide references and future directions for efficient manipulation of mycoplasma genomes.

Keywords: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9 system; genome engineering; mycoplasma; synthetic biology; transposon.

Publication types

Review