Skin infections affect approximately one-third of the population, with New Zealand experiencing one of the highest infection rates among developed countries. Acinetobacter baumannii is an emerging pathogen that poses a significant threat in healthcare settings, particularly due to its role in skin and soft tissue infections. This bacterium is notorious for its ability to develop resistance to multiple antibiotics, making infections difficult to treat. A. baumannii skin infections are often associated with severe outcomes, especially in patients with compromised immune systems or chronic wounds.
The rising incidence of antibiotic-resistant strains exacerbates the challenge, leading to increased morbidity, prolonged hospital stays, and higher healthcare costs. Addressing this issue requires urgent research into novel therapeutic targets and effective treatment strategies. We aim to identify key regulatory genes and pathways in a highly virulent A. baumannii strain using state-of-the-art sequencing techniques. Transposon sequencing (Tn-seq), a method that uses transposon insertion mutants to determine the fitness of genes on a genome-wide scale, will be employed to identify essential genes using a saturated Tn-seq library pool from A. baumannii Ab5075 in an in vitro biofilm and in vivo skin abscess model. Our innovative approach to determining essential genes will determine possible drug targets for treating skin infections. This research will focus on three key objectives:
- identifying genes required for bacterial survival in biofilms
- determining genes required for bacterial survival in a skin abscess model, and
- validating these gene targets to identify therapeutic targets.
