title: Identification of a genomic fragment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis responsible for in vivo growth advantage.
abstract: The purpose of this work was to develop a system to identify virulence determinants of M. tuberculosis by genetic complementation. The ability to grow in mouse spleen and/or lung was defined as a potential phenotype for virulence. Enrichment for growing recombinant clones from a pool of H37Ra transformants containing the integrating pYUB178::H37Rv cosmid library was accomplished by in vivo selection. A molecular strategy was devised to isolate and clone the 25-kb H37Rv genomic fragment ivg that conferred in vivo growth advantage to H37Ra. This study is a first step toward understanding the genetics of virulence in M. tuberculosis. A detailed description of these experiments has been submitted for publication in Infection and Immunity.
authors.affiliation: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Hamilton, Montana.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pascopella
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Bloom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D015723:Gene Library; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D014774:Virulence