Cloning and expression of Mycobacterium aurum carotenogenesis genes in Mycobacterium smegmatis

This report describes the first successful transfer and complete expression of clustered mycobacterial genes controlling a biosynthetic pathway (carotenogenesis) in a homologous system. A genomic library of pigmented Mycobacterium aurum A+ (yellow-orange) DNA was constructed in shuttle vector pHLD-69. The colourless mutant A11 and the brick-red mutant NgR9 derived from M. aurum A+ were electroporated with the plasmid library. Among the transformants, colonies different in colour from the recipient mutants were detected, and were cloned. One of the clones from the transformed A11 mutant had a yellow-orange phenotype, and was designated A11T; one of the clones from the NgR9 (brick-red) mutant had a yellow-orange phenotype and was designated NgR9T. The carotenoid pigments from the A11T and NgR9T clones were analyzed and in both the end product of carotenogenesis in M. aurum (leprotene) was detected. A11T and NgR9T harboured the same recombinant plasmid (Cl) containing a 11-kb M. aurum fragment. pCl was used to transform the colourless Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2-155 strain. All the transformants were pigmented. A colony (MC2-T) was arbitrarily chosen and leprotene was detected. It was therefore concluded that M. aurum genes involved in carotenogenesis had been cloned, and were expressed not only in M. aurum mutants, but also in M. smegmatis.     

Partial physical and functional map of aMycobacterium aurum carotenogenesis operon

The genes controlling the biosynthesis of the carotenes inMycobacterium aurum were clustered in a 10.83-kb segment. Fragments generated by endonuclease digestions of the segment were cloned into a pHLD69 shuttle vector. The plasmids so constructed were used to transform a colorless (albino)M. aurum mutant (strain A₁₁), a brick-red mutant accumulating large amounts of lycopene (strain NgR9), the buff-coloredMycobacterium smegmatis MC²-155, and the buffcoloredMycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra. From the endonuclease digestion patterns and the phenotypes of the transformed strains, the partial physical and functional maps of a carotenogenesis operon were established. This investigation also showed that the genes controlling the conversion of lycopene into the xanthophylls were not located in the 10.83-kb segment.     

The pathogen Mycobacterium marinum, a faster growing close relative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has a single rRNA operon per genome

Although Mycobacterium marinum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis are very closely related they differ significantly in their growth rates. The Type strain of M. marinum and one clinical isolate were investigated and, like M. tuberculosis, were found to have a single rRNA (rrn) operon per genome located downstream from murA gene and controlled by two promoters. No sequence differences were found that account for the difference in the growth rates of the two species. We infer that M. tuberculosis has the capacity to synthesize rRNA much faster than it actually does; and propose that the high number of insertion sequences in this species attenuate growth rate to lower values.     

Mycobacterium tuberculosis mammalian cell entry operon (mce) homologs in Mycobacterium other than tuberculosis (MOTT)

The cloned mammalian cell entry gene mce1a from Mycobacterium tuberculosis confers to non-pathogenic Escherichia coli the ability to invade and survive inside macrophages and HeLa cells. The aim of this work was to search for and characterize homologs of the four M. tuberculosis mammalian cell entry operons (mce1, mce2, mce3 and mce4) in mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT). The dot-blot and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments performed on 24 clinical isolates representing 20 different mycobacterial species indicated that the mce operons were widely distributed throughout the genus Mycobacterium. BLAST search results showed the presence of mce1, mce2 and mce4 homologs in Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium smegmatis. A homologous region for the mce3 operon was also found in M. avium and M. smegmatis. DNA and protein alignments were done to compare the M. tuberculosis mce operons and the deduced M. bovis, M. avium, and M. smegmatis homologs. The deduced proteins of M. bovis mce1, mce2 and mce4 operons had 99.6-100% homology with the respective M. tuberculosis mce proteins (MTmce). The similarity between M. avium mce proteins and the individual M. tuberculosis homologs ranged from 56.2 to 85.5%. The alignment results between M. smegmatis mce proteins and the respective MTmce proteins ranged from 58.5% to 68.5%. Primer sets were designed from the M. tuberculosis mce4a gene for amplification of 379-bp fragments. Amplification was successful in 14 strains representing 11 different mycobacterial species. The PCR fragments were sequenced from 10 strains representing eight species. Alignment of the sequenced PCR products showed that mce4a homologs are highly conserved in the genus Mycobacterium. In conclusions, the four mce operons in different mycobacterial species are generally organized in the same manner. The phylogenetic tree comparing the different mce operons showed that the mce1 operon was closely related to the mce2 operon and mce3 diverged from the other operons. The wide distribution of the mce operons in pathogenic and non-pathogenic mycobacteria implicates that the presence of these putative virulence genes is not an indicator for the pathogenicity of the bacilli. Instead, the pathogenicity of these factors might be determined by their expression.     

Mycobactin and the competition for iron between Mycobacterium neoaurum and M. vaccae

Two closely related species of mycobacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae and M. neoaurum, were grown under conditions of iron-deficiency (0.02-0.05 microgram Fe ml-1) and iron-sufficiency (2-4 micrograms Fe ml-1) in a simple glycerol/asparagine medium. The strain of M. vaccae used was a nonmycobactin producer whereas M. neoaurum synthesized between 6-8% of its cell biomass as the lipid-soluble siderophore when grown under iron-limitation. The role of mycobactin for iron-acquisition was examined using both pure and mixed cultures, with cell viability determined following growth at various iron concentrations. M. neoaurum, the mycobactin producer, outgrew M. vaccae when iron was readily available. When grown under conditions where iron was limiting, M. neoaurum showed a decline in viable cell number compared with its competitor, highlighting its increased requirement for the metal. Some recovery was observed following mycobactin biosynthesis, this being greatly enhanced by the addition of an iron supplement to the growing cells. Mycobactin biosynthesis allowed M. neoaurum to rapidly acquire any additional iron presented to the bacteria when growing under iron-limitation. However, M. vaccae did not synthesize the lipid-soluble siderophore with its iron-requirement satisfied by production of extracellular exochelin.     

Light-induced carotenogenesis in Myxococcus xanthus: light-dependent membrane sequestration of ECF sigma factor CarQ by anti-sigma factor CarR

Light-induced carotenogenesis in Myxococcus xanthus is under the control of the carQRS operon. CarQ, a proposed extracytoplasmic (ECF) RNA polymerase sigma factor, is required for expression of the operon and the carC gene that encodes phytoene dehydrogenase. CarR, an inner membrane protein in Escherichia coli, is essential for carQRS promoter inactivation in the dark. CarS is required for the light-dependent expression of the promoter of the carB gene cluster that encodes the rest of the structural genes for carotenogenesis. Regulation of carQRS is dependent on the stoichiometry of CarQ and CarR. Increasing the copy number of carQ over carR led to constitutive carotenogenesis, as did loss of translational coupling between carQ and carR. The severity of the constitutive phenotype depended on the distance between the uncoupled genes. When expressed in M. xanthus, a CarR:β-galactosidase fusion protein disappeared in the light. We propose that anti-sigma factor CarR sequesters CarQ to the membrane in the dark, but, in the light, loss of CarR leads to release of the sigma factor.     

Horizontal transfer of a virulence operon to the ancestor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The contribution of interspecies horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to the evolution and virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the agent of tuberculosis in humans, has been barely investigated. Here we have studied the evolutionary history of the M. tuberculosis Rv0986-8 virulence operon recently identified, through functional genomics approaches, as playing an important role in parasitism of host phagocytic cells. We showed that among actinobacteria, this operon is specific to the M. tuberculosis complex and to ancestral Mycobacterium prototuberculosis species. These data, together with phylogenetic reconstruction and other in silico analyses, provided strong evidence that this operon has been acquired horizontally by the ancestor of M. tuberculosis, before the recent evolutionary bottleneck that preceded the clonal-like evolution of the M. tuberculosis complex. Genomic signature profiling further suggested that the transfer was plasmid mediated and that the operon originated from a gamma-proteobacterium donor species. Our study points out for the first time the contribution of HGT to the emergence of M. tuberculosis and close relatives as major pathogens. In addition, our data underline the importance of deciphering gene transfer networks in M. tuberculosis in order to better understand the evolutionary mechanisms involved in mycobacterial virulence.     

Fatty acid composition and mycolic acid pattern of some chromogenic mycobacteria

Twenty-nine strains of chromogenic mycobacteria belonging to the species Mycobacterium aurum (5 strains), M. duvalii (2), M. flavescens (1), M. gordonae (6), M. kansasii (3), M. obuense (1), M. parafortuitum (3), M. phlei (2), M. rhodesiae (1), M. vaccae (2) and Mycobacterium spp. (3) were studied for fatty acid composition and mycolic acid patterns by gas-liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatography respectively. Fatty acids found ranged from those with 12-24 carbon atoms and were saturated and monounsaturated straight chain fatty acids, along with 10-methyl branched of 16, 17 and 18 (tuberculostearic acid) carbon atoms. Moreover, 2-methyl tetradecanoic acid was found in M. gordonae, M. kansasii and Mycobacterium spp. (2 strains), and 2,4-dimethyl tetradecanoic acid in M. kansasii and Mycobacterium spp. (2 strains). Nonadecenoic acid was found only in M. flavescens and tuberculostearic acid was not detected in M. gordonae. Three patterns of mycolic acids were obtained: the first, found in M. aurum, M. flavescens, M. phlei, M. rhodesiae and Mycobacterium spp. (1 strain), was characterized by the presence of several spots assigned to alpha-mycolates, keto-mycolates and wax-ester mycolates (omega-carboxy-mycolates and 2-eicosanol and related alcohols); the second, found in M. duvalii, M. obuense, M. parafortuitum and M. vaccae was similar to the first, but it contained an additional spot of alpha'-mycolates; the third pattern, found in M. gordonae, M. kansasii and Mycobacterium spp. (2 strains) contained three spots considered to be alpha-mycolates, methoxy-mycolates and keto-mycolates. The results obtained confirm previously reported data on the fatty and mycolic acid composition of the species studied.     

katGI and katGII encode two different catalases-peroxidases in Mycobacterium fortuitum.

It has been suggested that catalase-peroxidase plays an important role in several aspects of mycobacterial metabolism and is a virulence factor in the main pathogenic mycobacteria. In this investigation, we studied genes encoding for this protein in the fast-growing opportunistic pathogen Mycobacterium fortuitum. Nucleotide sequences of two different catalase-peroxidase genes (katGI and katGII) of M. fortuitum are described. They show only 64% homology at the nucleotide level and 55% identity at the amino acid level, and they are more similar to catalases-peroxidases from different bacteria, including mycobacteria, than to each other. Both proteins were found to be expressed in actively growing M. fortuitum, and both could also be expressed when transformed into Escherichia coli and M. aurum. We detected the presence of a copy of IS6100 in the neighboring region of a katG gene in the M. fortuitum strain in which this element was identified (strain FC1). The influence of each katG gene on isoniazid (isonicotinic acid hydrazide; INH) susceptibility of mycobacteria was checked by using the INH-sensitive M. aurum as the host. Resistance to INH was induced when katGI was transformed into INH-sensitive M. aurum, suggesting that this enzyme contributes to the natural resistance of M. fortuitum to the drug. This is the first report showing two different genes encoding same enzyme activity which are actively expressed within the same mycobacterial strain.     

Effects of CPTA upon carotenogenesis and lipoidal constituents in Rhodotorula species

The effects of 2-(4-chlorophenyl)-triethylamine (CPTA) upon carotenogenesis in Rhodotorula glutinis, and upon various lipoidal constituents of R. rubra were studied. CPTA was found to cause the accumulation of lycopene and γ-carotene and to inhibit the formation of fatty acids and ergosterol. Upon removal of the inhibitor lycopene was metabolized to the cyclic carotenes and the levels of ergosterol increased. It was proposed that CPTA inhibits the cyclase enzyme of carotenogenesis, inhibits the formation of ergosterol, and causes the build-up of intermediates of these compounds.     

Mycobactins as chemotaxonomic characters for some rapidly growing mycobacteria

Thirty-nine strains of rapidly growing mycobacteria were examined for the production of mycobactins (lipid-soluble, iron-binding compounds) when grown under conditions of iron-limitation on solidified medium. Different growth conditions had little effect on the structure of individual mycobactins, indicating them to be strongly conserved molecules showing intra-species consistency and thus suitable for use as chemotaxonomic characters of high discriminatory power. Strains of Mycobacterium aurum, M. chitae, M. chelonae subsp. abscessus, 'M. diernhoferi', M. duvalii, M. flavescens, M. fortuitum, M. gadium, 'M. gallinarum', M. neoaurum, M. parafortuitum, 'M. peregrinum', M. phlei, M. smegmatis, M. thermoresistible and M. vaccae formed mycobactins which were readily isolated and characterized by a combination of thin-layer and high-performance liquid chromatography. All strains of M. komossense and 'M. kanazawa' failed to produce a mycobactin; some strains of M. aurum, M. chelonae, M. parafortuitum, M. thermoresistible and M. vaccae were similarly negative. Mycobacteria of the M. fortuitum complex (M. fortuitum, M. chelonae and 'M. peregrinum') formed distinctive mycobactins, as did those in the M. parafortuitum complex (M. aurum, M. neoaurum, 'M. diernhoferi', M. vaccae and M. parafortuitum). The mycobactin from 'M. gallinarum' was different from those of the related species M. flavescens, for which four distinct mycobactin patterns were recorded. For routine examination of mycobactins in a diagnostic laboratory with limited resources, thin-layer chromatography used alone offers a simple but adequate means of characterization and final identification of the producing mycobacterium. High-performance liquid chromatography is only needed in those few instances where a high degree of discrimination is required.     

Mutations affecting pigment synthesis in Mycobacterium aurum

Pigmentation mutants of Mycobacterium aurum were isolated after chemical mutagenesis. Examination of the pigments extracted from these mutants indicated that at least 15 carotenoids were formed. beta-Carotene was not detected and the major carotene of M. aurum appeared to be leprotene. The possible biosynthetic pathway is discussed on the basis of these results.     

Metabolism of n-Butane and 2-Butanone by Mycobacterium vaccae

n-Butane was metabolized in Mycobacterium vaccae (JOB5) via terminal oxidation. This organism metabolized 2-butanone through propionate (or propionyl coenzyme A). Subterminal oxidation in M. vaccae was apparently limited to propane.     

Fatty acid composition and mycolic acid pattern of some chromogenic mycobacteria

Twenty-nine strains of chromogenic mycobacteria belonging to the species Myco-bacterium aurum (5 strains), M. duvalii (2), M. flavescens (1), M. gordonae (6), M. kansasii (3), M. obuense (1), M. parafortuitum (3), M. phlei (2), M. rhodesiae (1), M. vaccae (2) and Mycobacterium spp. (3) were studied for fatty acid composition and mycolic acid patterns by gas-liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatog-raphy respectively. Fatty acids found ranged from those with 12–24 carbon atoms and were saturated and monounsaturated straight chain fatty acids, along with 10-methyl branched of 16, 17 and 18 (tuberculostearic acid) carbon atoms. Moreover, 2-methyl tetradecanoic acid was found in M. gordonae, M. kansasii and Mycobacterium spp. (2 strains), and 2,4-dimethyl tetradecanoic acid in M. kansasii and Mycobacterium spp. (2 strains). Nonadecenoic acid was found only in M. flavescens and tuberculostearic acid was not detected in M. gordonae . Three patterns of mycolic acids were obtained: the first, found in M. aurum, M. flavescens, M. phlei, M. rhodesiae and Mycobacterium spp. (1 strain), was characterized by the presence of several spots assigned to α-mycolates, keto-mycolates and wax-ester mycolates (ω-carboxy-rnycolates and 2-eicosanol and related alcohols); the second, found in M. duvalii, M. obuense, M. parafortuitum and M. vaccae was similar to the first, but it contained an additional spot of α-mycolates; the third pattern, found in M. gordonae, M. kansasii and Mycohacterium spp. (2 strains) contained three spots considered to be α-mycoiates, methoxy-mycolates and keto-mycolates. The results obtained confirm previously reported data on the fatty and mycolic acid composition of the species studied.     

母牛分支杆菌菌苗治疗糖尿病合并初治肺结核的临床分析

目的 探讨母牛分支杆菌菌苗（简称微卡）治疗糖尿病合并肺结核的疗效。方法 同期选取40例糖尿病合并肺结核初治患者,随机分为A、B组。A组以常规抗痨治疗（2HRZE／4HR）,B组在常规抗痨治疗的基础上加用微卡治疗2月。结果 B组结核病灶消散吸收、空洞完全或部分闭合、痰结核菌阴转速度均明显快于A组（P〈0．05）,且不良反应少见。结论 微卡可用作糖尿病合并肺结核的免疫治疗。     

In vitro carotenogenesis and characterization of the phytoene desaturase reaction in Anacystis

An in vitro system for carotenogenesis has been developed from the cyanobacterium Anacystis. Precursor conversion is highly effective and almost no colored intermediates before beta-carotene accumulate. These cell-free reactions have been employed to characterize the phytoene desaturation reaction. Phytoene desaturation is dependent on NAD(P)+ and oxygen but insensitive to inhibitors of plant-type monooxygenases. This result suggests a hydride/proton transfer as mechanism for insertion of a double bond into phytoene. Furthermore, feed-back regulation of phytoene desaturase could be demonstrated for most of the subsequent carotenes.