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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology
The W-Beijing lineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis overproduces triglycerides and has the DosR dormancy regulon constitutively upregulated
Journal of Bacteriology, Volume 189, No. 7, Year 2007
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Description
The Beijing family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains has been associated with epidemic spread and an increased likelihood of developing drug resistance. The characteristics that predispose this family to such clinical outcomes have not been identified, although one potential candidate, the phenolic glycolipid PGL-tb, has been shown to mediate a fulminant lethal disease in mice and rabbits due to lipid-mediated immunosuppression. However, PGL-tb is not uniformly expressed throughout the Beijing lineage and may not be the only unique virulence trait associated with this family. In an attempt to define phenotypes common to all Beijing strains, we interrogated a carefully selected set of isolates representing the five extant lineages of the Beijing family. Comparison of lipid production in this set revealed that all Beijing strains accumulated large quantities of triacylglycerides in in vitro aerobic culture. This accumulation was found to be coincident with upregulation of Rv3130c, whose product was previously characterized as a triacylglyceride synthase. Rv3130c is a member of the DosR-controlled regulon of M. tuberculosis, and further examination revealed that several members of this regulon were upregulated throughout this strain family. The upregulation of the DosR regulon may confer an adaptive advantage for growth in microaerophilic or anaerobic environments encountered by the bacillus during infection and thus may be related to the epidemiological phenomena associated with this important strain lineage. Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Reed, Michael B.
United States, Bethesda
National Institutes of Health Nih
Canada, Montreal
Mcgill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital
Gagneux, Sébastien P.
United States, Palo Alto
Stanford University
United States, Seattle
Institute for Systems Biology
DeRiemer, Kathryn
United States, Palo Alto
Stanford University
United States, Davis
University of California, Davis
Small, Peter M.
United States, Seattle
Institute for Systems Biology
Barry, Clifton Earl
United States, Bethesda
National Institutes of Health Nih
Statistics
Citations: 227
Authors: 5
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1128/JB.01670-06
ISSN:
00219193
Research Areas
Infectious Diseases