Demonstration that fbiC is required by Mycobacterium bovis BCG for coenzyme F(420) and FO biosynthesis.

ABSTRACT: Using the nitroimidazopyran-based antituberculosis drug PA-824 as a selective agent, transposon-generated Mycobacterium bovis strain BCG (M. bovis) mutants that could not make coenzyme F(420) were identified. Four independent mutants that could not make F(420) or the biosynthesis intermediate FO were examined more closely. These mutants contained transposons inserted in the M. bovis homologue of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene Rv1173, which we have named fbiC. Complementation of an M. bovis FbiC(-) mutant with fbiC restored the F(420) phenotype. These data demonstrate that fbiC is essential for F(420) production and that FbiC participates in a portion of the F(420) biosynthetic pathway between pyrimidinedione and FO. Homologues of fbiC were found in all 11 microorganisms that have been

SUBMITTER: Choi KP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC134996 | biostudies-literature | 2002 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature