Tuberculosis remains a significant threat to human health with 1/3 of humans being latently infected. This project aims at investigating the role of RNA-based regulators of growth factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We have recently identified a small antisense RNA and a putative riboswitch in the 5’ untranslated region of the rpfB (resuscitation factor B) gene, shown to play an important role in reactivation of dormant M. tuberculosis. The project aims at characterizing these elements and their role in the expression of RpfB and ultimately how this may affect M. tuberculosis pathogenesis.
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| [1] WHO, Global Tuberculosis control. 2011, WHO. |
| [2] Barry, C.E., 3rd, et al., The spectrum of latent tuberculosis: rethinking the biology and intervention strategies. Nat Rev Microbiol, 2009. |
| [3] Tufariello, J.M., W.R. Jacobs, Jr., and J. Chan, Individual Mycobacterium tuberculosis resuscitation-promoting factor homologues are dispensable for growth in vitro and in vivo. Infect Immun, 2004. |
| [4] Cortes, T., et al., Genome-Wide Mapping of Transcriptional Start Sites Defines an Extensive Leaderless Transcriptome in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Cell Reports, 2013 |