Down-regulation of malate synthase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra leads to reduced stress tolerance, persistence and survival in macrophages

Malate synthase is a condensing enzyme responsible for conversion of glyoxylate to malate in the presence of acetyl-CoA. This reaction helps in bypassing the TCA cycle reactions involving carbon loss and leads to diverting some of the carbon skeletons to gluconeogenic events while rest can continue to provide TCA cycle intermediates. Malate synthase (GlcB) is encoded by MRA_1848 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra (Mtb-Ra). We developed a knockdown (KD) Mtb-Ra strain by down-regulating GlcB. The survival studies suggested increased susceptibility to oxidative and nitrosative stress as well as to rifampicin.

Source: Tuberculosis - July 17, 2017 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Kumar Sachin Singh, Rishabh Sharma, Deepa Keshari, Nirbhay Singh, Sudheer Kumar Singh Source Type: research