Identification and Validation of Aspartic Acid Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase as a New Anti-Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Target

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Jianzhou Meng¹  Yanhui Yang²  Chunling Xiao¹  Yan Guan¹  Xueqin Hao¹  Qi Deng¹  Zhongyang Lu¹ 

[1] Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100050, China; E-Mails:;The School of Basic Medicine, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, China; E-Mail:

关键词: aspartic acid semialdehyde dehydrogenase;    Mycobacterium tuberculosis;    pathogenicity;    pristinamycin;    promotor-replacement mutant;    drug resistance;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms161023572

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Aspartic acid semialdehyde dehydrogenase (ASADH) lies at the first branch point in the essential aspartic acid biosynthetic pathway that is found in bacteria and plants but is absent from animals. Mutations in the asadh gene encoding ASADH produce an inactive enzyme, which is lethal. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the hypothesis that ASADH represents a new anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) target. An asadh promoter-replacement mutant MTB, designated MTB::asadh, in which asadh gene expression is regulated by pristinamycin, was constructed to investigate the physiological functions of ASADH in the host bacteria. Bacterial growth was evaluated by monitoring OD₆₀₀ and ASADH expression was analyzed by Western blotting. The results showed that the growth and survival of MTB::asadh was completely inhibited in the absence of the inducer pristinamycin. Furthermore, the growth of the mutant was rigorously dependent on the presence of the inducer in the medium. The starved mutant exhibited a marked reduction (approximately 80%) in the cell wall materials compared to the wild-type, in addition to obvious morphological differences that were apparent in scanning electron microscopy studies; however, with the addition of pristinamycin, the cell wall contents and morphology similar to those of the wild-type strain were recovered. The starved mutant also exhibited almost no pathogenicity in an in vitro model of infection using mouse macrophage J774A.1 cells. The mutant showed a concentration-dependent recovery of pathogenicity with the addition of the inducer. These findings implicate ASADH as a promising target for the development of novel anti-MTB drugs.

【 授权许可】

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