Open AccessCholesterol oxidase is required for virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Author(s) -
Brzostek Anna,
Dziadek Bozena,
RumijowskaGalewicz Anna,
Pawelczyk Jakub,
Dziadek Jaroslaw
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2007.00865.x
Subject(s) - virulence , mycobacterium tuberculosis , cholesterol oxidase , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , mycobacterium , enzyme , biochemistry , gene , tuberculosis , genetics , bacteria , medicine , pathology
Recent reports have indicated that cholesterol plays a crucial role during the uptake of mycobacteria by macrophages. However, the significance of cholesterol modification enzymes encoded by Mycobacterium tuberculosis for bacterial pathogenicity remains unknown. Here, the authors explored whether the well‐known cholesterol modification enzyme, cholesterol oxidase (ChoD), is important for virulence of the tubercle bacillus. Homologous recombination was used to replace the choD gene from the M. tuberculosis genome with a nonfunctional copy. The resultant mutant (Δ cho D) was attenuated in peritoneal macrophages. No attenuation in macrophages was observed when the same strain was complemented with an intact choD gene controlled by a heat shock promoter (Δ cho DP hsp cho D). The mice infection experiments confirm the significance of ChoD in the pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis .