High-throughput bacterial functional genomics in the sequencing era

High-throughput functional genomic technologies are accelerating progress in understanding the diversity of bacterial life and in developing a systems-level understanding of model bacterial organisms. Here we highlight progress in deep-sequencing-based functional genomics, show how whole genome sequencing is enabling phenotyping in organisms recalcitrant to genetic approaches, recount the rapid proliferation of functional genomic approaches to non-growth phenotypes, and discuss how advances are enabling genome-scale resource libraries for many different bacteria.