No abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis likely reside within a granuloma as a dormant state. An area of necrosis forms at the center of lung granulomas. Within this area, the bacteria are deprived of nutrients and exposed to harsh conditions, including low pH and anoxia. The response of M. tuberculosis to low pH and low oxygen conditions was investigated in both cellular and extracellular proteins by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis and MALDI-TOF. Several proteins intensively expressed under low pH and/or hypoxic conditions were found. In the culture filtrate, PhoS1 (Rv0934) and ScoB (Rv2503c) were found in significant amounts under both the low oxygen and acidic stress conditions. These results indeed extend our understanding of acidic response as well as hypoxic in M. tuberculosis and provide an important insight into physiology of the latent bacilli.