In this study, we have identified a secreted 13 kDa lectin from Mtb (Mtb, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; sMTL-13) by homology search of a non-redundant lectin database. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that sMTL-13 belongs to the ricin-type beta-trefoil family of proteins containing a Sec-type signal peptide present in Mtb complex species, but not in non-tuberculous mycobacteria. Following heterolo...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the most common co-infection in HIV patients and a serious co-epidemic. Apart from increasing the risk of reactivation of latent tuberculosis (TB), HIV infection also permits opportunistic infection of environmental non-pathogenic mycobacteria. To gain insights into mycobacterial survival inside host macrophages and identify mycobacterial proteins or processe...

OBJECTIVE To compare three methods: Biochemical tests, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragments length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), for the identification of mycobacteria, and to perform a cost-benefit analysis to define an optimum identification algorithm. MATERIAL AND METHODS One-hundred-and-seven mycobacteria isolates were identified by ...

The aim of this study was to use the microtitre alamarBlue assay to investigate and compare the antimycobacterial potential of the lantibiotics nisin and lacticin 3147 against a representative cohort of clinically significant mycobacteria, i.e. Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) ATCC 19698 and Mycobacterium kansasii CIT11/06. Lacticin 3147 displa...

Cerulenin is a potent inhibitor of fatty acid synthase (FAS) in a variety of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Using a standardized mycobacterial susceptibility test, we have observed that cerulenin inhibits the growth of several species of mycobacteria, including tuberculous species such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Rv and clinical isolates) and Mycobacterium bovis BCG (hereafter called B...

A comparison of the DNA sequence of the 16S rRNA revealed a region in which there was a minor variation between the species of mycobacteria. This information was used to develop a multiplex amplification system that could identify the genus Mycobacterium and then distinguish between M. avium and M. intracellulare, two commonly encountered mycobacteria other than tuberculosis. The combination of...

Background: Diabetes is an important metabolic disease with myriad manifestations and complications, affecting many people. Cutaneous infections impact numerous diabetic patients. Among different bacterial infections in diabetic patients, the infections caused by mycobacteria other than Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MOTT) eventuate in complications owing to the paucity of accurate detection...

The genetic manipulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome is limited by the availability of selection markers. Spontaneous resistance mutation rate of M. tuberculosis to the widely used kanamycin is relatively high which often leads to some false positive transformants. Due to the few available markers, we have created a cassette containing thiostrepton resistance gene (tsr) for selection i...

Shitaye J.E., Horváthová A., Bartošová L., Morávková M., Kaevska M., Donnelly N., Pavlík I. (2009): Distribution of non-tuberculosis mycobacteria in environmental samples from a slaughterhouse and in raw and processed meats. Czech J. Food Sci., 27: 194–202. The notification of all cases of diagnosed bovine tuberculosis is a statutory requirement, while the same is not true for other mycobacteri...