Biochemical Studies on a Mycobacterial Protein Potentially Involved in Fatty acid Transport

Tuberculosis, an emerging infectious disease, steals thousands of lives each year while latently infecting millions of individuals. Adding to the death toll, dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) reactivates when the immune system is suppressed. Current drugs and therapies only treat active tuberculosis disease and thus far no antibiotic against dormant Mtb has been found. Recent studies have shown that fatty acids are an energy source for the latent pathogen. However, the means by which fatty acids are transported into the mycobacterial cell remains unknown. We have identified an Mtb adenosine triphosphate binding-cassette (ABC) transport protein that potentially transports fatty acids based on its amino acid sequence identity with a known fatty acid transporter in another bacterium and designate this protein as mycobacterial ABC transporter (mABCT). We have cloned the mABCT gene from the genome of Mtb and expressed the protein in Escherichia coli cells. In this study, we examine the ability of the mABCT protein to enhance fatty acid transport and affect lipid metabolism in the heterologous host cells. Our research on understanding the role of this mycobacterial protein is expected to aid the development of novel antibiotics to treat latent tuberculosis disease.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2015/1051/thumbnail.jp