A common mechanism for the biosynthesis of methoxy and cyclopropyl mycolic acids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterium tuberculosis produces three classes of mycolic acids that differ primarily in the presence and nature of oxygen-containing substituents in the distal portion of the meromycolate branch. The methoxymycolate series has a methoxy group adjacent to a methyl branch, in addition to a cyclopropane in the proximal position. Using the gene for the enzyme that introduces the distal cyclopropane (cma1) as a probe, we have cloned and sequenced a cluster of genes coding for four highly homologous methyl transferases (mma1-4). When introduced into Mycobacterium smegmatis, this gene cluster conferred the ability to synthesize methoxymycolates. By determining the structure of the mycolic acids produced following expression of each of these genes individually and in combination, we have eluci

SUBMITTER: Yuan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC24005 | biostudies-literature | 1996 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature