Intracellular survival plays a central role in the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a process which depends on an array of virulence factors to colonize and replicate within the host. The M. tuberculosis iron regulated open reading frame (ORF) rv3402c, encoding a conserved hypothetical protein, was shown to be up-regulated upon infection in both human and mice macrophages. To explore...

Mycobacteria are able to degrade natural sterols and use them as a source of carbon and energy. Several genes which play an important role in cholesterol ring degradation have been described in Mycobacterium smegmatis. However, there are limited data describing the molecular mechanism of the aliphatic side chain degradation by Mycobacterium spp. In this paper, we analyzed the role of the echA19...

Despite the ubiquitous presence of atypical mycobacteria in the environment and the potential risk of infection in humans and animals, the pathogenesis of diseases caused by infection with atypical mycobacteria has been poorly characterized. In this study, goldfish, Carassius auratus were infected either with the rapidly growing fish pathogen, Mycobacterium fortuitum or with another rapidly gro...

In early stationary phase of growth, Mycobacterium smegmatis cultures accumulate amylooligosaccharides (alpha 1 leads to 4-glucooligosaccharides) up to the undecasaccharide. Although M. smegmatis also makes an acylated polymethylpolysaccharide that is predominantly and alpha 1 leads to 4-glucan, we conclude that these oligosaccharides are precursors of glycogen rather than lopopolysaccharide.

Abbreviations used: DMSO, Dimethyl sulfoxide; E. coli, Escherichia coli; FP, 15 Fluorescence Polarization; LB, Luria-Bertani; MDR-TB, Multi-Drug Resistant 16 Tuberculosis; MALDI, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization; MIC, 17 Minimum Inhibitory Concentration; M. smegmatis, Mycobacterium smegmatis; 18 Mtb, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; MTT, (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,519 diphenyltetrazo...

In a two-step mating experiment with recipient strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis, the Mycobacterium fortuitum cryptic plasmid pJAZ38 was isolated. Plasmid pJAZ38 was genetically labeled by cointegration formation mediated by the kanamycin-resistant mycobacterial transposon Tn611. The region responsible for replication of pJAZ38 was located and sequenced. This region showed homology with the My...

To further understand Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis, the regulation of potential virulence genes needs to be investigated. The eis gene of M. tuberculosis H37Rv enhances the intracellular survival of Mycobacterium smegmatis, which does not contain eis, within macrophages (J. Wei, J. L. Dahl, J. W. Moulder, E. A. Roberts, P. O'Gaora, D. B. Young, and R. L. Friedman, J. Bacteriol. 182:3...

In mycobacterial growth medium 40 to 400 microM citrate was required to solubilize 2 microM 55Fe. This solubilized 55Fe was taken up into both iron-deficient and iron sufficient washed cell suspensions of Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Although the 55Fe was taken up into the cell, the citrate was not. The uptake system with M. smegmatis was not inhibited by electron transp...

The function of protein-coding gene Rv0901 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which belongs to the cell wall and cell processes category, is not yet clear. To explore its features, we amplified this gene from the H37Rv genome, and His-tagged Rv0901 protein was expressed and purified. Also, a recombinant plasmid bearing Rv0901 was constructed and electroporated into a virulent Mycobacterium smegmati...