Tn-Seq analysis for obligate iron acquisition and utilization genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires iron for its virulence and intracellular survival. To obtain iron, M. tuberculosis can utilize ferric-siderophores and heme/hemoglobin as iron sources. However, the process of iron uptake and utilization in Mtb is largely uncharacterized. In this study, we constructed six high density Mtb transposon libraries (~75% coverage) grown under different iron source conditions. By transposon-insertion sequencing (Tn-Seq), we could systematically identify the genes required for of iron acquisition and utilization by Mtb for each iron source.