8 / 20
Page 21
Notes:
allied
academies
September 20-21, 2017 | Philadelphia, USA
Global summit on
TUBERCULOSIS AND LUNG DISEASE
Int J Respir Med 2017 Volume 2 Issue 2
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
toxin; antitoxin genes: Modulators of growth and fibromyalgia
Shaleen B Korch
1
, Vandana Malhotra
2
, Heidi Contrerasand Chronic
3
, Josephine E Clark
3
and
Pain-Curtiss
4
1
Midwestern University, USA
2
Sri Venkateswara College, India
3
City of Hope Hospital Duarte - Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
4
University of Florida, USA
O
ne aspect of Mtb’s (
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
)
pathogenic success is undoubtedly its ability to adapt
to adverse environments encountered during infection of
human macrophages. By mechanisms not fully understood,
Mtb is able to transition from active growth to dormancy and
can persist for extensive periods of time, with the potential
of causing reactivation disease. Remarkably, Mtb encodes
90+ TA modules belonging to TA families relBE, vapBC, parDE,
higBA and mazEF, suggesting involvement of toxin: antitoxin
genes in Mtb pathogenesis. This talk will focus on the role of
TAmodules as regulators of cell growthandpotential effectors
of mycobacterial persistence, with an emphasis on the relBE
family. We have established that the mycobacterial RelEMtb
toxin negatively impacts growth and the structural integrity
of the mycobacterial envelope in the absence of its cognate
RelBMtb antitoxin, generating cells with aberrant forms that
are prone to extensive aggregation. At a time coincident
with growth defects, RelEMtb mediates mRNA degradation
in vivo
resulting in significant changes to the proteome.
We establish that relMtb modules are stress responsive, as
all three operons are transcriptionally activated following
mycobacterial exposure to specific adverse environments.
Overall, analysis reveals that the relMtb toxin: antitoxin
family is stress-responsive and, through the degradation of
mRNA, the RelEMtb toxin influences the growth, proteome
and morphology of mycobacterial cells.
Speaker Biography
Shaleen B Korch has received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the
University of North Dakota (USA) in 2005. After completing her PhD, she did a Post-
doctoral fellowship at the Bio design Institute at Arizona State University (USA) which
is focused on characterizing the first toxin: antitoxin modules in
Mycobacterium
tuberculosis
. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Midwestern
University, with research interests in
M. tuberculosis
pathogenicity and the role of
toxin: antitoxin modules in
M. tuberculosis
persistence. In addition, she evaluates
novel, synthetic man-made proteins as potential antimicrobial chemotherapeutics and
biological tools.
e:
skorch@midwestern.edu