Mycobacterium smegmatis MraZ Regulates Multiple Genes within and Outside of the dcw Operon during Hypoxia.

Abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most ancient human tuberculosis pathogen and has been the leading cause of death from bacterial infectious diseases throughout human history. According to the World Health Organization Global Tuberculosis Report, in 2022, 7.5 million new tuberculosis cases were identified, marking the highest number of cases since the World Health Organization initiated its worldwide tuberculosis surveillance program in 1995. The 2019 peak was 7.1 million cases, with 5.8 million cases in 2020 and 6.4 million in 2021. The increase in 2022, which may be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic complicating tuberculosis case tracing, has raised concerns. To better understand the regulation spectrum of Mycobacterium smegmatis mraZ under hypoxia, we performed a transcriptome analysis of M. smegmatis mutant and wild-type strains using Illumina Agilent 5300 sequencing. The study identified 6898 differentially expressed genes, which were annotated with NCBI nonredundant protein sequences, a manually annotated and reviewed protein sequence database, Pfam, Clusters of Orthologous Groups of Proteins, Gene Ontology, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. Several mycobacteria transcriptional regulators, virulence genes, membrane transporters, and cell wall biosynthesis genes were annotated. These data serve as a valuable resource for future investigations and may offer insight into the development of drugs to combat M. tuberculosis infection.