Lsr2, a pleiotropic regulator at the core of the infectious strategy of Mycobacterium abscessus [RNA-seq]

Mycobacterium abscessus (Mabs) is a fast-growing, non-tuberculous mycobacterium responsible for serious lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis. This bacterium evolves during the pulmonary infection between a smooth (S) and a rough morphotype (R). We have previously isolated the lsr2 gene as being differentially expressed during the transition between Mabs-S and Mabs-R. lsr2 encodes a pleiotropic transcription factor belonging to the superfamily of nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs), which play an essential role in the hierarchical organization of bacterial chromosomes. The present study aims to unravel the molecular role of Lsr2 in regulating expression of gene involved in the adaptation and the pathobiology of Mabs using both RNA-Seq and ChIP-seq. We performed RNA-seq on Mabs-S and Mabs-R Lsr2 mutant and WT strains and conduct a differential gene expression analysis using RNA-seq to identify Lsr2-regulated targets.