A single pure component was isolated from mycobactin P by countercurrent distribution; its side chain is n-cis-octadec-2-enoyl; its purity and molecular structure were confirmed by mass spectrometry of its aluminium complex. The separation of ferric and of aluminium complexes of mycobactins by thin-layer chromatography is described. Mycobacterium terrae, M. marinum and M. smegmatis produce myco...

A young man employed at the local aquarium was bitten by a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) during a training session, receiving a slight injury which healed rapidly. Some two months later fluctuant swellings appeared in the region of the bite, which developed into indolent ulcers which have not completely healed seven months after the original bite. Cultures taken on two occasions have ...

Striped bass Morone saxatilis were studied in order to characterize their immune responses over the short term following challenge with Mycobacterium marinum. The expression of immunity-related genes (IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, Nramp and TGF-beta) quickly increased following infection with M. marinum, but these genes were subsequently down-regulated despite the fact that bacterial counts remained hig...

A putative lipopeptide biosynthetic gene cluster is conserved in many species of Actinobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. marinum, but the specific function of the encoding proteins has been elusive. Using both in vivo heterologous reconstitution and in vitro biochemical analyses, we have revealed that the five encoding biosynthetic enzymes are capable of synthesizing a famil...

Granulomas, organized aggregates of immune cells, are a hallmark of tuberculosis and have traditionally been thought to restrict mycobacterial growth. However, analysis of Mycobacterium marinum in zebrafish has shown that the early granuloma facilitates mycobacterial growth; uninfected macrophages are recruited to the granuloma where they are productively infected by M. marinum. Here, we identi...

The mycobacterial mel2 locus (mycobacterial enhanced infection locus, Rv1936-1941) is Mycobacterium marinum and M. tuberculosis specific, which can withstand reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) induced stress. A library of over a million compounds was screened using in silico virtual ligand screening (VLS) to identify inhibitors against the modeled structure of Mel...

BACKGROUND Atypical mycobacteria are a heterogeneous group of organisms that are of increasing importance because of the growing number of infections they cause. This rising rate of infection is due mainly to the increase in the number of susceptible (and especially immunosuppressed) patients. OBJECTIVE To revise the currently used treatment schemes of the most commonly isolated atypical myco...