A specific polymorphism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv causes differential ESAT-6 expression and identifies WhiB6 as a novel ESX-1 component.

ABSTRACT: The ESX-1 secreted virulence factor ESAT-6 is one of the major and most well-studied virulence factors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, given that its inactivation severely attenuates virulent mycobacteria. In this work, we show that clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis produce and secrete larger amounts of ESAT-6 than the widely used M. tuberculosis H37Rv laboratory strain. A search for the genetic polymorphisms underlying this observation showed that whiB6 (rv3862c), a gene upstream of the ESX-1 genetic locus that has not previously been found to be implicated in the regulation of the ESX-1 secretory apparatus, presents a unique single nucleotide insertion in its promoter region in strains H37Rv and H37Ra. This polymorphism is not present in any of the other publicly available M. tuberculo

SUBMITTER: Solans L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4136221 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature