RNA-seq of pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheriae NCTC 13129 provides detailed insights into transcriptional landscape. Corynebacterium diphtheriae NCTC 13129

Background: The human pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheriae is the causative agent of the disease diphtheria. In the 1990s a large diphtheria outbreak in Eastern Europe was caused by the strain C. diphtheriae NCTC 13129. Although the genome was sequenced several years ago, not much is known about the transcriptome. Our aim was to use RNA Sequencing to close this knowledge gap and gain insights into the transcriptional landscape of C. diphtheriae. Results: We applied two different RNA Sequencing techniques, one to retrieve 5' ends of primary transcripts and one to obtain full length transcripts, to gain insights into various features of the C. diphtheriae NCTC 13129 transcriptome. By examining the data we identified 1,657 transcription start sites (TSS) of which 1,229 were assigned to genes and 428 to putative novel transcripts. By using the TSS data SigA promotor regions and their motifs could be analyzed in detail, revealing a well conserved –10 but unconserved –35 motif, respectively. Furthermore with the TSS data in hand 5' UTR lengths were explored. The observed 5' UTRs range from leaderless, which make up 20 % of all genes, up to over 450 bp long leaders, which may harbor regulatory functions. The C. diphtheriae transcriptome consists of 470 operons which are further divided into 167 sub-operon structures. In addition we discovered that the deletion of the iron sensing transcription regulator DtxR, which also controls expression of diphtheria toxin (DT), has a strong influence on general gene expression. Nearly 15 % of the genome is differentially expressed, indicating that DtxR might have other functions next to regulation of iron metabolism and DT. Furthermore we shed light on the transcriptional landscape of the DT encoding gene tox and present evidence for an additional TSS and three tox antisense RNAs, which might reveal new ways of transcriptional regulation. Conclusions: This study presents extensive insights into the transcriptome of C. diphtheriae and provides a basis for future studies regarding transcriptional regulators, gene characterization and the tox gene in particular. Overall design: RNA-Seq of primary transcripts of wild type cells and whole transcriptome of wild type and dtxR mutant in triplicates.