谷氨酸棒状杆菌集成细胞网络的构建与结构分析

谷氨酸棒状杆菌是一种重要的传统工业微生物,其基因组学和分子遗传操作工具的快速发展使得谷氨酸棒状杆菌具备了作为新型细胞工厂的潜力。但是,相对于大肠杆菌等模式生物,对于棒杆菌的代谢调控研究较少,特别是目前还缺乏谷氨酸棒状杆菌集成细胞网络的研究,这一现状阻碍了谷氨酸棒状杆菌的系统生物学研究和大规模菌种理性设计优化。文中综合应用公共数据库、文献数据库资源,首次构建了谷氨酸棒状杆菌的集成细胞网络,包含1 384个反应,1 276个代谢物,88个调节子,999对转录调控关系。其转录调控可分为5层,代谢网络呈现出清晰的bow-tie结构。文中还以赖氨酸的生物合成为例,提出了一种提取代谢调控子网络的新方法,这对氨基酸等产品高产生物机制的研究和工程菌株的重新设计具有指导意义。     

Mycobacterium tuberculosis malate synthase is a laminin-binding adhesin

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) uses the glyoxalate bypass for intracellular survival in vivo. These studies provide evidence that the M. tb malate synthase (MS) has adapted to function as an adhesin which binds to laminin and fibronectin. This binding is achieved via the unique C-terminal region of the M. tb MS. The ability to function as an adhesin necessitates extracellular localization. We provide evidence that despite the absence of a Sec-translocation signal sequence the M. tb MS is secreted/excreted, and is anchored on the cell wall by an undefined mechanism. The MS of Mycobacterium smegmatis is cytoplasmic but the M. tb MS expressed in M. smegmatis localizes to the cell wall and enhances the adherence of the bacteria to lung epithelial A549 cells. Antibodies to the C-terminal laminin/fibronectin-binding domain interfere with the binding of the M. tb MS to laminin and fibronectin and reduce the adherence of M. tb to A549 cells. Coupled to the earlier evidence of in vivo expression of M. tb MS during active but not latent infection in humans, these studies show that a housekeeping enzyme of M. tb contributes to its armamentarium of virulence promoting factors.