Multiple genetic paths including massive gene amplification allow Mycobacterium tuberculosis to overcome loss of ESX-3 secretion system substrates

Abstract

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb ) ESX-3 type VII secretion system plays a critical role in iron acquisition. Infection of mice with highly attenuated Mtb deletion mutants lacking esxG or esxH , genes encoding key ESX-3 substrates, unexpectedly yielded suppressor mutants with restored capacity to grow in vivo and in vitro in the absence of iron supplementation. Whole-genome sequencing identified two mechanisms of suppression, the disruption of a transcriptional repressor that regulates expression of an ESX-3 paralogous region encoding EsxR and EsxS, and a massive 38- to 60-fold gene amplification of this same region. These data are significant because they reveal a previously unrecognized iron acquisition regulon and inform mechanisms of Mtb chromosome evolution.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 22, 2022
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.2112608119

Entities

People

  • Amol C. Shetty
  • Angèle Bénard
  • Bing Chen
  • Brian C Weinrick
  • Christopher F Basler
  • Daisy W Leung
  • Emmanuel Asare
  • Freddy Sanchez-tumbaco
  • Gaya K. Amarasinghe
  • Gordon Dougan
  • Jiayong Xu
  • Joann M. Tufariello
  • John Chan
  • Lin Wang
  • Megan R. Edwards
  • Rajagopalan Saranathan
  • William Jacobs

Organizations

  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  • Georgia State University
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Trudeau Institute
  • United States Department of Defense
  • Washington University in St. Louis
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Breast cancer cell signaling and growth regulation.
  • Microbial Pathology
  • Molecular Genetics

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biotechnology - Cancer Biotech