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Mycobacterial phagosome maturation, rab proteins, and intracellular trafficking
Author(s) -
Deretic V.,
Via Laura E.,
Fratti Rutilio A.,
Deretic Dusanka
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.1150181409
Subject(s) - phagosome , phagolysosome , rab , endosome , mycobacterium marinum , biology , mycobacterium , microbiology and biotechnology , mycobacterium tuberculosis , intracellular parasite , mycobacterium bovis , mycobacterium leprae , intracellular , phagocytosis , tuberculosis , bacteria , immunology , gtpase , medicine , genetics , leprosy , pathology
One of the most prominent features of pathogenic mycobacteria, which include the potent human pathogens Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae and their opportunistic relatives Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium marinum , is their ability to survive and multiply in phagosomes of mononuclear phagocytic cells. The phagocytosed mycobacteria reside in a vacuolar compartment which is exempted from maturation into the phagolysosome. Recently, the arrest of the maturation of phagosomes containing M. tuberculosis complex organisms ( Mycobacterium bovis BCG) has been linked to the accumulation on the phagosomal membrane of the small GTP binding protein rab5, specific for the control of fusion within the early endosomal compartment. Furthermore, M. bovis BCG phagosome is devoid of rab7, a rab protein associated with the late endosome. The selective accumulation of rab5 and exclusion of rab7 defines the check point that has been compromised in mycobacterial phagosome maturation. Here we summarize these observations and relates them to other phenomena in the area of membrane and protein trafficking with the emphasis on phagosomes containing intracellular pathogens.