Metabolic Network for the Biosynthesis of Intra- and Extracellular α-Glucans Required for Virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterium tuberculosis synthesizes intra- and extracellular α-glucans that were believed to originate from separate pathways. The extracellular glucose polymer is the main constituent of the mycobacterial capsule that is thought to be involved in immune evasion and virulence. However, the role of the α-glucan capsule in pathogenesis has remained enigmatic due to an incomplete understanding of α-glucan biosynthetic pathways preventing the generation of capsule-deficient mutants. Three separate and potentially redundant pathways had been implicated in α-glucan biosynthesis in mycobacteria: the GlgC-GlgA, the Rv3032 and the TreS-Pep2-GlgE pathways. We now show that α-glucan in mycobacteria is exclusively assembled intracellularly utilizing the building block α-maltose-1-phosphate as the s

SUBMITTER: Koliwer-Brandl H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4981310 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature