Cloning of an M. tuberculosis DNA fragment associated with entry and survival inside cells.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects one-third of the world's human population. This widespread infection depends on the organism's ability to escape host defenses by gaining entry and surviving inside the macrophage. DNA sequences of M. tuberculosis have been cloned; these confer on a nonpathogenic Escherichia coli strain an ability to invade HeLa cells, augment macrophage phagocytosis, and survive for at least 24 hours inside the human macrophage. This capacity to gain entry into mammalian cells and survive inside the macrophage was localized to two distinct loci on the cloned M. tuberculosis DNA fragment.
Arruda
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S
Division of International Medicine, Cornell University Medical College, New York, NY 10021.
Bomfim
G
G
Knights
R
R
Huima-Byron
T
T
Riley
L W
LW
D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology; D014774:Virulence
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial