Mycobacterium tuberculosis utilizes a unique heterotetrameric structure for dehydrogenation of the cholesterol side chain.

ABSTRACT: Compounding evidence supports the important role in pathogenesis that the metabolism of cholesterol by Mycobacterium tuberculosis plays. Elucidating the pathway by which cholesterol is catabolized is necessary to understand the molecular mechanism by which this pathway contributes to infection. On the basis of early metabolite identification studies in multiple actinomycetes, it has been proposed that cholesterol side chain metabolism requires one or more acyl-CoA dehydrogenases (ACADs). There are 35 genes annotated as encoding ACADs in the M. tuberculosis genome. Here we characterize a heteromeric ACAD encoded by Rv3544c and Rv3543c, formerly named fadE28 and fadE29, respectively. We now refer to genes Rv3544c and Rv3543c as chsE1 and chsE2, respectively, in recognition of their validated

SUBMITTER: Thomas ST 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3726044 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature