Phosphorylation of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis beta-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein reductase MabA regulates mycolic acid biosynthesis.

ABSTRACT: Mycolic acids are key cell wall components for the survival, pathogenicity, and antibiotic resistance of the human tubercle bacillus. Although it was thought that Mycobacterium tuberculosis tightly regulates their production to adapt to prevailing environmental conditions, the molecular mechanisms governing mycolic acid biosynthesis remained extremely obscure. Meromycolic acids, the direct precursors of mycolic acids, are synthesized by a type II fatty acid synthase from acyl carrier protein-bound substrates that are extended iteratively, with a reductive cycle in each round of extension, the second step of which is catalyzed by the essential beta-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein reductase, MabA. In this study, we investigated whether post-translational modifications of MabA might represent a

SUBMITTER: Veyron-Churlet R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2857119 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature