The discovery of the CD1 antigen presentation pathway has expanded the spectrum of T-cell antigens to include lipids, but the range of natural lipid antigens and functions of CD1-restricted T cells in vivo remain poorly understood. Here we show that the T-cell antigen receptor and the CD1c protein mediate recognition of an evolutionarily conserved family of isoprenoid glycolipids whose members include essential components of protein glycosylation and cell-wall synthesis pathways. A CD1c-restricted, mycobacteria-specific T-cell line recognized two previously unknown mycobacterial hexosyl-1-phosphoisoprenoids and structurally related mannosyl-beta1-phosphodolichols. Responses to mannosyl-beta1-phosphodolichols were common among CD1c-restricted T-cell lines and peripheral blood T lymphocytes of human subjects recently infected with M. tuberculosis, but were not seen in naive control subjects. These results define a new class of broadly distributed lipid antigens presented by the CD1 system during infection in vivo and suggest an immune mechanism for recognition of senescent or transformed cells that are known to have altered dolichol lipids.

SummaryThe Mycobacterium tuberculosis TetR-type regulator Rv3574 has been implicated in pathogenesis as it is induced in vivo, and genome-wide essentiality studies show it is required for infection. As the gene is highly conserved in the mycobacteria, we deleted the Rv3574 orthologue in Mycobacterium smegmatis (MSMEG_6042) and used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and microarray analyses to show that it represses the transcription both of itself and of a large number of genes involved in lipid metabolism. We identified a conserved motif within its own promoter (TnnAACnnGTTnnA) and showed that it binds as a dimer to 29 bp probes containing the motif. We found 16 and 31 other instances of the motif in intergenic regions of M. tuberculosis and M. smegmatis respectively. Combining the results of the microarray studies with the motif analyses, we predict that Rv3574 directly controls the expression of 83 genes in M. smegmatis, and 74 in M. tuberculosis. Many of these genes are known to be induced by growth on cholesterol in rhodococci, and palmitate in M. tuberculosis. We conclude that this regulator, designated elsewhere as kstR, controls the expression of genes used for utilizing diverse lipids as energy sources, possibly imported through the mce4 system.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, has two distinguishing characteristics: its ability to stain acid-fast and its ability to cause long-term latent infections in humans. Although this distinctive staining characteristic has often been attributed to its lipid-rich cell wall, the specific dye-retaining components were not known. Here we report that targeted deletion of kasB, one of two M. tuberculosis genes encoding distinct ␤-ketoacyl-acyl carrier protein synthases involved in mycolic acid synthesis, results in loss of acid-fast staining. Biochemical and structural analyses revealed that the ⌬kasB mutant strain synthesized mycolates with shorter chain lengths. An additional and unexpected outcome of kasB deletion was the loss of ketomycolic acid trans-cyclopropanation and a drastic reduction in methoxymycolic acid trans-cyclopropanation, activities usually associated with the trans-cyclopropane synthase CmaA2. Although deletion of kasB also markedly altered the colony morphology and abolished classic serpentine growth (cording), the most profound effect of kasB deletion was the ability of the mutant strain to persist in infected immunocompetent mice for up to 600 days without causing disease or mortality. This long-term persistence of ⌬kasB represents a model for studying latent M. tuberculosis infections and suggests that this attenuated strain may represent a valuable vaccine candidate against tuberculosis. mycolic acid ͉ Ziehl-Neelsen stain ͉ cording ͉ persistence ͉ FAS-II

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The genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has revealed the presence of 20 different cytochrome P450 mono-oxygenases (P450s) within this organism, and subsequent genome sequences of other mycobacteria and of Streptomyces coelicolor have indicated that these actinomycetes also have large complements of P450s, pointing to important physiological roles for these enzymes. The actinomycete P450s include homologues of 14α-sterol demethylases, the targets for the azole class of drugs in yeast and fungi. Previously, this type of P450 was considered to be absent from bacteria. When present at low concentrations in growth medium, azole antifungal drugs were shown to be potent inhibitors of the growth of Mycobacterium smegmatis and of Streptomyces strains, indicating that one or more of the P450s in these bacteria were viable drug targets. The drugs econazole and clotrimazole were most effective against M. smegmatis (MIC values of T02 and 03 µM, respectively) and were superior inhibitors of mycobacterial growth compared to rifampicin and isoniazid (which had MIC values of 12 and 365 µM, respectively). In contrast to their effects on the actinomycetes, the azoles showed minimal effects on the growth of Escherichia coli, which is devoid of P450s. Azole drugs coordinated tightly to the haem iron in M. tuberculosis H37Rv P450s encoded by genes Rv0764c (the sterol demethylase CYP51) and Rv2276 (CYP121). However, the azoles had a higher affinity for M. tuberculosis CYP121, with K d values broadly in line with the MIC values for M. smegmatis. This suggested that CYP121 may be a more realistic target enzyme for the azole drugs than CYP51, particularly in light of the fact that an S. coelicolor ∆CYP51 strain was viable and showed little difference in its sensitivity to azole drugs compared to the wild-type. If the azole drugs prove to inhibit a number of important P450s in M. smegmatis and S. coelicolor, then the likelihood of drug resistance developing in these species should be minimal. This suggests that azole drug therapy may provide a novel antibiotic strategy against strains of M. tuberculosis that have already developed resistance to isoniazid and other front-line drugs.