Construction and characterisation of Chlamydia transposon knock-out libraries

The aim of this proposal is to provide as a biological resource an ordered collection of Chlamydia knockout mutants and the genetic tools needed for other researchers to generate their own mutants. This will be of enormous benefit to the research community, as pre-existing methodologies for mutant generation are difficult and time-consuming and also can suffer from off-target affects. The main tools have already been developed during my current TDG, so there will be immediate availability of these to the research community. The availability of randomly generated mutants/collections of mutants will enable testing of gene function, which is a critically important step in the development of novel drugs and vaccines. Collections of mutants of various Chlamydial species will be generated during the course of the grant, and will be characterised and deposited in the Chlamydia Biobank for easy unrestricted access by members of the researcch community.