PUBLICATION

Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenicity viewed through the lens of molecular Koch's postulates

Authors
Ramakrishnan, L.
ID
ZDB-PUB-200221-11
Date
2020
Source
Current opinion in microbiology   54: 103-110 (Review)
Registered Authors
Ramakrishnan, Lalita
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Genes, Bacterial
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions
  • Humans
  • Macrophages, Alveolar/immunology
  • Macrophages, Alveolar/microbiology
  • Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous/immunology
  • Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous/microbiology*
  • Mycobacterium marinum/genetics*
  • Mycobacterium marinum/pathogenicity*
  • Mycobacterium marinum/physiology
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis/genetics*
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis/pathogenicity*
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis/physiology
  • Tuberculosis/immunology
  • Tuberculosis/microbiology*
  • Virulence/genetics
  • Virulence Factors/genetics
  • Virulence Factors/physiology*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
32062573 Full text @ Curr. Opin. Microbiol.
Abstract
Thirty years ago Stanley Falkow formulated molecular Koch's postulates as a framework to help dissect the contribution of microbial genes to their pathogenicity (Box 1). Three years later, his advice led me to develop Mycobacterium marinum, a close genetic relative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as a model for tuberculosis pathogenesis. Here, I discuss insights into M. tuberculosis pathogenicity from studying M. marinum in the zebrafish, and frame them in terms of molecular Koch's postulates. The highly orchestrated life cycle of M. tuberculosis is achieved in substantial measure not by "traditional" pathogen-exclusive virulence genes acquired along its evolutionary history, but rather by genes that are shared with its environmental ancestors. Together, these genes support its tactics of subterfuge and exploitation to overcome host immunity so as to produce the transmissible disease that ensures the evolutionary survival of this obligate human pathogen.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping