The Mycobacterium tuberculosis homologue of the Mycobacterium avium mig gene is not specifically expressed in the macrophage

Abstract

With the completion of genome sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
and upsurge in the incidence of M. tuberculosis infection worldwide partly as
a result of HIV pandemic, there is need for rationale approach to vaccine and
chemotherapy discoveries for M. tuberculosis. The homologue of mig gene of
Mycobacterium avium was searched for in the M. tuberculosis database at The
Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR), USA and The Sanger Institute, UK.
Homologue of the gene was found and comprehensively analysed. Reverse
transcription PCR (RT-PCR) was carried out on the mig (fadD19) gene
homologue and echA19 gene. The result of the RT-PCR showed that the mig
gene was at least 2-fold upregulated during intracellular infection of
macrophage compared to the broth grown bacilli as opposed to the
demonstrated specific expression of mig gene in M. avium infected
macrophage. The echA19 gene was also found to be upregulated. .
(Afr. J. Biomed. Res. 11: 173 - 181)

Key Words; macrophage induced gene, mig gene, Mycobacterium tuberculosis