Molecular biology of mycobacteria and mycobacteriophages

Abstract

The salient features of the work related to the genetics and molecular biology of mycobacteria carried out by our group at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology for the past 20 yean have been summarized here. The emphasis has mostly been on the characterization of the components of the synthetic machinery for macmmolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins in order to correlate a molecular basis for the 'slow growth' phenotype of mycobacteria, and to define possible targets for drug acuon. The molecular mechanisms of the action of existing antihlbercular drugs and the development of resistance against these drugs by mycobacteria have also been investigated. Another significant contribution has been the isolation of a transductine- mv.cob aneriov.hae-e. v.hae- I3 and the detailed characterization of its physiology and blochemistry including genome organization. Investigations on bacteriophages have proved to be one of the most imvortant ao.v. r oaches to understand the host, as seen from such ~arallels tudles carried out on other bacterial genera Like Escherichia or Salmonella. The establishment of conditions for transduct~on, transfection, and spheroplast formation, fusion and regeneration in order to proride a direct genetic access to mycobacterial research has also been a noteworthy contribution. More recently, the application of recombinant DNA methodologies have permitted the cloning and characterization of genes born mycobacteria and mycobacteriophages, revealing a variety of features ranging from the codon usages to the organisation of transcriptional promoter elements, and thus bringing us a step closer towards the understanding of the molecular mysteries of mycobacterial growth.