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Journal of Medical Microbiology logo Journal of Medical Microbiology

Volume 74, Issue 3

Differential expression of genes associated with lipid import, β-oxidation and lactate oxidation induced by curli pili in broth culture compared to intracellular bacilli within THP-1 macrophages Open Access

Abstract

The adhesin, curli pili (MTP), assists the pathogen in attachment, invasion and disease progression. Previously, this adhesin was demonstrated to contribute to the pathogen’s cell wall functions and fatty acid metabolism and affects total metabolite abundance in central carbon metabolism and fatty acid metabolism of the host. The accumulation/depletion of metabolites is reliant on the gene expression of proteins involved in the import, transport and breakdown of substrates.

MTP has not been investigated in relation to genes involved in import/transport/breakdown of substrates.

This study aimed to investigate the possible regulatory role of MTP in modulating metabolic changes of the pathogen in different microenvironments.

Ribonucleic acid was harvested from bacterial broth cultures of adhesin-proficient and adhesin-deficient . These strains were also used to infect differentiated THP-1 macrophages for 4 h prior to isolation of intracellular bacteria, RNA extraction and reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR. The expression levels of selected genes involved in fatty acid transport (, , , , and ), β-oxidation ( and ), lactate oxidation ( and ) and gluconeogenic carbon flow () were analysed by absolute quantification.

The gene expression levels of , and were significantly lower, and those of , , , and were significantly higher in the adhesin-proficient cultured bacterial strains relative to the Δ strain. The intracellular adhesin-proficient bacteria displayed significantly higher gene expression levels of and significantly lower gene expression levels of , , and relative to the Δ strain. Interestingly, during early infection, the intracellular Δ displayed significantly increased expression of , , , and relative to the broth culture. This trend was inverted in the WT models.

MTP are significantly associated with the regulation of genes involved in lipid transport, β-oxidation and lactate oxidation.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): adhesin , gene expression , Mycobacterium tuberculosis , reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR and THP-1 macrophage infection
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Award CHS PhD Scholarship 2022)
    • Principal Award Recipient: ShineseAshokcoomar
  • National Research Foundation (Award Doctoral Grant PMDS22070734938)
    • Principal Award Recipient: ShineseAshokcoomar
  • College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Award APACHE)
    • Principal Award Recipient: ManormoneyPillay
  • National Research Foundation (Award CPRR Grant 105841)
    • Principal Award Recipient: PillayManormoney
© 2025 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The Microbiology Society waived the open access fees for this article.
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2025-03-31
2025-12-16

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Differential expression of genes associated with lipid import, β-oxidation and lactate oxidation induced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis curli pili in broth culture compared to intracellular bacilli within THP-1 macrophages
J. Med. Microbiol. 74, 001994 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001994
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001994
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001994
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