Project description:Transcriptional profiling of mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates in China comparing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis with drug sensitive one.
Project description:Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a facultative intracellular pathogen, responsible for causing tuberculosis. The harsh environment in which M. tuberculosis survives requires this pathogen to maintain an evolutionary advantage. However, the apparent absence of horizontal gene transfer in M. tuberculosis imposes restrictions in the ways by which evolution can occur. Large scale changes in the genome can be introduced through genome reduction, recombination events and structural variation. Here, we identify a functional chimeric protein in the ppe38-71 locus, the absence of which is known to have an impact on protein secretion and virulence. To examine whether this approach was used more often by this pathogen we further develop software that detects potential gene fusion events from multigene deletions using whole-genome sequencing data. With this software we could identify a number of other putative gene-fusion events within the genomes of M. tuberculosis isolates. We were able to demonstrate the expression of one of these gene fusions at the protein level using mass spectrometry. Therefore, gene fusions may provide an additional means of evolution for M. tuberculosis in its natural environment whereby novel proteins and functions can arise.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates in China comparing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis with drug sensitive one. The same condition experiment. The samples were from the different drug-resistant strains. Only one replicate.
Project description:Investigation of whole genome gene expression level changes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis treated with the DHFR inhibitor WR99210, compared to untreated cells. The antimycobacterial properties of WR99210 are further described in Gerum, A., Ulmer, J., Jacobus, D., Jensen, N., Sherman, D., and C. Sibley. 2002. Novel Saccharomyces cerevisiae screen identifies WR99210 analogues that inhibit Mycobacterium tuberculosis dihydrofolate reductase. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 46(11):3362-3369 [PMID:12384337]
Project description:Tuberculosis (TB) remains a deadly disease. The genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was neglected in the past, but is increasingly recognized as a determinant of immune responses and clinical outcomes of TB. However, how this bacterial diversity orchestrates immune responses to direct differences in TB severity remains unknown. We studied 681 patients with pulmonary TB and found that phylogenetically related M. tuberculosis isolates from cases with mild disease induced robust cytokine responses in macrophages. In contrast, isolates associated with severe TB cases failed to do so. Using representative isolates, we show that M. tuberculosis inducing a low cytokine response in macrophages also diminished activation of cytosolic surveillance systems, including cGAS and the inflammasome, suggesting a novel mechanism of immune escape. Isolates exhibiting this evasion strategy carried mutations in various components of the ESX-I secretion system. We conclude that host interactions with different M. tuberculosis strains results in variable TB severity.
