title: Cytokinins beyond plants: synthesis byMycobacterium tuberculosis.
abstract: Mycobacterium tuberculosis(M. tuberculosis) resides mainly inside macrophages, which produce nitric oxide (NO) to combat microbial infections. Earlier studies revealed that proteasome-associated genes are required forM. tuberculosisto resist NO via a previously uncharacterized mechanism. Twelve years later, we elucidated the link between proteasome function and NO resistance inM. tuberculosisinMolecular Cell, 57 (2015), pp. 984-994. In a proteasome degradation-defective mutant, Rv1205, a homologue of the plant enzyme LONELY GUY (LOG) that is involved in the synthesis of phytohormones called cytokinins, accumulates and as a consequence results in the overproduction of cytokinins. Cytokinins break down into aldehydes that kill mycobacteria in the presence of NO. Importantly, this new discovery reveals for the first time that a mammalian bacterial pathogen produces cytokinins and leaves us with the question: why isM. tuberculosis, an exclusively human pathogen, producing cytokinins?
authors.affiliation: New York University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, New York, NY 10016 USA.
authors.forename: Marie I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Samanovic
authors.affiliation: New York University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, New York, NY 10016 USA.
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Darwin
keywords: LONELY GUY; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; cytokinins; nitric oxide; proteasome