Metabolism in Mycobacterium Leprae, M. Tuberculosis and Other

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Metabolism in Mycobacterium Leprae, M. Tuberculosis and Other BnaA Mtthcal BidUnm (1988) Vol 44, No 3, pp 547-561 Metabolism in Mycobacterium leprae M. tuberculosis and Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/44/3/547/283569 by guest on 28 September 2021 other pathogenic mycobacteria P R Wheeler C Ratledge Department of Biochemistry, Untvernty of Hull, Hull Pathogenic mycobacteria have complex lipoidal cell walls. Most of them secrete further lipids which appear as a layer around intracellular organisms. This lipoidal exterior may protect mycobacteria inside macrophages from attempts that those host cells make to kill them Such protection could be especially important in M leprae which unusually lacks catalase, an important 'self-defence' enzyme. Intracellular mycobacteria must obtain key nutrients from the host. The role of mycobactm and exochelm in acquiring iron, the carbon and nitrogen sources—including metabolic intermediates—used, and control of biosynthetic pathways are discussed. M. tuberculosis is capable of synthesismg all its macromolecules but M. leprae depends on the host for purines (precursors of nucleic acids), and maybe other intermediates Pathogenic mycobacteria grow slowly, and the possibilities that permeability of the envelope to nutrients, catabolic or anabolic (particularly DNA, RNA synthesis) reactions are limiting to growth are considered. Some characteristic activities may represent targets for antimycobactenal agents. Although it is a considerable over-simplification, it could be asserted that most mycobacteria are no more than Escherichia coli wrapped up in a fur coat. Metabolic processes in mycobacteria, for 548 TUBERCULOSIS AND LEPROSY the most part, are therefore the same, in broad outline as have been elucidated in the more amenable bacteria. Thus it is the few activities which are characteristically mycobacterial and the differ- ences between pathogenic mycobacteria and more amenable mi- crobes, that we discuss in this article. In contrast to workers using E. coli, those of us who have Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/44/3/547/283569 by guest on 28 September 2021 investigated the metabolism of mycobacteria do so with the dual disadvantages of having no adequately worked-out system for genetic manipulation of the mycobacteria and having to deal with cultures which, at best, are much more slow-growing than E. coli. At worst, some mycobacteria grow only with extreme difficulty (e.g. M. lepraemurium, M. paratuberculosis) while M. leprae does not grow in culture at all. Researches into the metabolism of M. tuberculosis and M. leprae follow two different approaches. With M. tuberculosis, much rele- vant research can be carried out using saprophytic mycobacteria as model systems in the first instance and observations can then be extended to organisms, such as BCG or even M. avium, before carrying out key experiments with virulent strains of M. tuberculo- sis. In such work, the emphasis has usually been on identifying those unusual aspects of metabolism in mycobacteria particularly in relation to their capabilities as pathogens. With researches into M. leprae, the quest is for that quirk of metabolism which renders the organism incapable of growing in laboratory medium. It is therefore necessary with this organism to establish that each pathway of metabolism is present and functional for surely more than one must be defective to account for its inability to grow in axenic culture. Microbial biochemists who study mycobacteria do so with specific objectives in mind. Perhaps though the greatest, and as yet unsolved, problem is to explain why even metabolically competent mycobacteria grow so much more slowly than most other bacteria and why it is that even within the mycobacteria there is such a wide variation in growth rates. In this short review, we have concentrated on those aspects of mycobacterial metabolism which are either unique to mycobac- teria or which may help to throw some light on their outstanding problems. STRUCTURE To understand mycobacteria one must begin by an understanding of the basic cell structure as it is here, within the envelope of the METABOLISM IN PATHOGENIC MYCOBACTER1A 549 bacterium, that lies the greatest difference with all other bacteria. The mycobacterial cell envelope is not only thicker than others but it is uniquely lipophilic. It is from this external barrier that arise the principal characteristics of the organism: acid-fastness, aggre- gation of cells, resistance to many bactericidal agents including lytic enzymes produced by invaded host cells and possibly impen- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/44/3/547/283569 by guest on 28 September 2021 etrability of some nutrients and even antibiotics. Various models of the mycobacterial envelope have been pro- posed which attempt to show the orientation of the major lipid components which abound in the cell wall. The model shown in Figure 1 is based on that proposed by Minnikin1 but modified (see Draper P, In: Proceedings of the Indo-UK Symposium on Leprosy: JALMA, Agra. April 1986; p. 155) to allow for the Phthiocerol dimycocerosate Cord factor SulphoJipid Mycolic acid Arabinogalactan Peptidoglycan Plasma membrane Cytoplasm Fig. 1 Model of the mycobactenal cell envelope (membrane and wall). This is based on the model of Minnikin1 modified according to Draper's suggestion (sec text) and thus allows for the size and branched nature of the arabinogalactan estenfied with mycohc acids on its branches. The diagram shows two dimensions; the arabinogalactan and peptidoglycan form a network of branched chains in the third dimension. The topography of the wall is speculative; complex hpids are shown interacting with arabinogalactan-bound mycohc acid chains, though the nature of such interactions has not been shown experimentally. Acyl moieties of phthiocerol dimycocerosate and sulpholipid are drawn short and could be underlapping acyl moieties of mycohc acids Carbohydrate moieties in glycohpids are shown with hatched lines. 550 TUBERCULOSIS AND LEPROSY relative sizes of the arabinogalactan (Mr ~ 30 000) and mycolate (Air ~ 1200) moieties and the branched nature of the arabino- galactan in the cell wall. The envelope is composed of a phospho- lipid plasma membrane, which may contain some unusual phospho- lipids (phosphatidylinositol mannosides) not found outside mycobacteria, to which abuts the typical peptidoglycan backbone Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/44/3/547/283569 by guest on 28 September 2021 of a Gram-positive bacterial cell.1 Beyond the peptidoglycan lies a branched polymer of arabinogalactan, (arasgal2),, which is linked to the peptidoglycan via a phosphodiester bridge. On to the arabinogalactan matrix are attached the long chain (C60-C86) fatty acids, termed mycolic acids, which may also be linked to sugars such as trehalose giving molecules originally termed 'cord factor' (6,6'-dimycolyltrehalose). Sulpholipids,2 also based on trehalose, occur as do long chain wax esters of phthiocerol dimycocerosates.1 Numerous other complex molecules have been isolated from the walls and some may be associated with viru- lence of the organism—though precise correlations have yet to be made—others are more certainly involved with the antigenic reactions of the mycobacteria. One such molecule apparently unique to M. leprae is a phenolic glycolipid based on the phthiocerol dimycocerosate molecule.3 Many of these mole- cules—cord factor, sulpholipids, phthiocerol esters—appear to be readily extractable from the cell wall and thus probably occur as discrete, free entities, maybe in outer layers outside the cell wall. Others form part of larger macromolecular structures; some of the mycobacterial lipids (e.g. Wax D) detected in ageing, autolysing cultures during early studies are now recognised as breakdown products of much larger molecules. Almost nothing is known about the biosynthesis of complex, mycobacterial lipids. Some intermediates in the biochemical pathways have been elucidated with a fair degree of certainty,1 but enzymes in the pathways have yet to be shown. In M. tuberculosis, a wall-associated polypeptide of glutamic acid occurs linked to the peptidoglycan backbone.4 As this may not occur in avirulent strains or in BCG, it may have some role in virulence—though how a somewhat inocuous polymer could act in this way is far from clear. The peptidoglycan of M. leprae also has an unusual feature; the L-alanine moiety of the peptido part of the molecule appears to be completely replaced by glycine5 though no metabolic or structural significance has been suggested as arising from this difference as, in essence, a CH3 group is being replaced by an H atom. METABOLISM IN PATHOGENIC MYCOBACTERIA 551 NUTRITION OF INTRACELLULAR MYCOBACTERIA The nutritional requirements of M. tuberculosis are quite simple as the organism grows, albeit slowly, on minimal culture media but does not grow appreciably quicker on more complex media. Thus, all cell components can be synthesised from a supply of organic Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/44/3/547/283569 by guest on 28 September 2021 + carbon (glycerol, glucose, etc.), inorganic nitrogen (NH4 ) and 6 2+ 2 + 3 3 + the usual inorganic elements (Mg , SO4 ~, K , PO4 ", Fe and other trace elements). However, it is difficult to elucidate the requirements of M. leprae as this organism only grows inside specific hosts (e.g. man and the armadillo) and thus will have available to it a complex array of host-derived nutrients. Which ones it uses can only be guessed at, but more
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