Evolutionary history of tuberculosis shaped by conserved mutations in the PhoPR virulence regulator
Abstract
In 1901, when Robert Koch proposed that the bacilli causing human and bovine tuberculosis were not identical, this view caused much controversy. Now, 113 y later, we know that the bovine tuberculosis agent, Mycobacterium bovis, together with other animal strains, forms a separate phylogenetic lineage apart from the human Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineages, but the molecular reasons why bovine and animal strains only play minor roles in human tuberculosis epidemiology remain unknown. Herein, we show by genetic transfer and virulence experiments that specific mutations in a virulence regulator contribute to lower fitness and virulence of M. bovis and related strains for the human host, likely obstructing the capacity of causing overt disease needed for efficient human-to-human transmission.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- August 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1406693111
- Bibcode:
- 2014PNAS..11111491G