Tn-seq of desiccated Acinetobacter baumannii

A major reservoir for spread of the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is hopsital surfaces, where bacteria persist in a desiccated state. To identify gene products influencing desiccation survival, a transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) screen was performed. Using this approach, we identified genes both positively and negatively impacting the desiccation tolerance of A. baumannii. A transposon library containing 90,000 insertions in A. baumannii was desiccated for 2 days or 14 days and the frequency of insertion mutants following desiccation was then compared to control input libraries to identify genes either promoting or inhibiting desiccation tolerance.