Combating Gram-positive pathogens: emerging techniques to identify relevant virulence targets

Abstract

Recent progress in microbial genome sequencing, along with functional genomics technologies based on gene expression, proteomics and genetics have facilitated the identification of significant numbers of Gram-positive virulence genes. These genes represent a novel and heterogeneous class of targets for antimicrobial drug development. This review will concentrate of the contribution of two functional genomics technologies, in vivo expression technology (IVET) based on gene expression and signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM), a genetics based technology to the identification of virulence genes in Gram-positive pathogens.

• antimicrobial
• drug target
• Gram-positive
• in vivo expression technology
• pathogen
• signature-tagged mutagenesis
• virulence gene