New approaches are required to combat M. tuberculosis (Mtb), especially the multi and extremely drug resistant and organisms (MDR-TB and XDR-TB). There are many reports that mycobacteria oxidize 3β-hydroxysterols to 3-ketosteroids, but the enzyme(s) responsible for this activity have not been identified in mycobacterial species. In this work, the Rv1106c gene that is annotated as a 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in Mtb has been cloned and heterologously expressed. The purified enzyme was kinetically characterized and found to have a pH optimum between 8.5 and 9.5. The enzyme, which is a member of the short chain dehydrogenase superfamily, uses NAD + as a cofactor and oxidizes cholesterol, pregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone to their respective 3-keto-4-ene products. The enzyme forms a ternary complex with NAD + binding before the sterol. The enzyme shows no substrate preference for dehydroepiandrosterone versus pregnenolone with second-order rate constants (k cat /K m ) of 3.2 ± 0.4 μM −1 min −1 and 3.9 ± 0.9 μM −1 min −1 , respectively at pH 8.5, 150 mM NaCl, 30 mM MgCl 2 , and saturating NAD + . Trilostane is a competitive inhibitor of dehydroepiandrosterone with a K i of 197 ± 8 |μM. The expression of the 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in Mtb is intracellular. Disruption of the 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase gene in Mtb abrogates mycobacterial cholesterol oxidation activity. These data are consistent with Rv1106c being the gene responsible for 3β-hydroxysterol oxidation in Mtb.Tuberculosis is an opportunistic infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb 1 ) in individuals with HIV-AIDS that is estimated to infect 30% of the world's population (1,2). The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die every year from tuberculosis. Drug resistance to front-line Mtb drugs rifampicin and isoniazid has emerged (3,4) and additional resistance to second line drugs is emerging (5,6). It is clear that new approaches are required to combat these multi drug-resistant and extreme (or extensively) drugresistant organisms (7-9).The complete genome sequences of microorganisms are a rich source for mining new drug targets. However, oftentimes, biochemical functions have been assigned to genes purely on the basis of their sequence homology to gene products which are themselves poorly † Financial support from the National Institutes of Health (AI065251 (N.S.S.), AI065997 (I.S.), RR021008, (N.S.S.) and NIAID Contract# HHSN266200400091C, (Colorado State University) and the National Science Foundation (CHE0131146 for NMR spectrometers) is gratefully acknowledged. *corresponding author: Address: Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3400, Phone: (631) Fax: (631) 632-5731 Nicole.Sampson@StonyBrook.edu. 1 Mtb: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; MDR-TB: multi-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis; XDR-TB: extremely-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis; DHEA: dehydroepiandrosterone; rH 6 3BHSD: recombinant 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase with an Nterminal six histidine tag; rSBHSD...