Lecture 4 Mycobacterial cell envelope transport Flashcards
Why is tuberculosis still so deadly?
- No effective vaccine available
2. M. tuberculosis is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics
What is the biggest issue for why tuberculosis is resistant?
Antibiotic treatment: regimen of >6 months using 4 specific antibiotics. Biggest issue = people don’t finish their cure (lack of compliance or non-availabiliy): resistance
Most of the mycobacteria species are/are not pathogenic. Most pathogenic bacteria are/are not slow growing.
are pathogenic & most pathogenic are slow growing
Typical characteristics of mycobacteria?
- Big difference in growth speed among Mycobacterium species. From 1 to 300 hours doubling time
- Characteristic colony morphology. Looks sort of fungal, ‘myco’ = fungal.
Typical characteristics of mycobacteria?
- Big difference in growth speed among Mycobacterium species. From 1 to 300 hours doubling time
- Characteristic colony morphology. Looks sort of fungal, ‘myco’ = fungal.
Typical characteristics of mycobacteria?
- Big difference in growth speed among Mycobacterium species. From 1 to 300 hours doubling time
- Characteristic colony morphology. Looks sort of fungal, ‘myco’ = fungal.
Why is the Mycobacterial cell envelope an Efficient barrier for antimicrobial compounds ?
> 60% of cell envelope consists of lipids
Permeability for hydrophilic molecules is 10x lower than that of Gram-negative bacteria.
Impermeability is an important virulence factor.
Gramstaining mycobacterium will result in..
unclear: Gram-variable.
Waar berust gramkleuring op?
Difference in stain dependent on peptidoglycan layer.
Mycobacteria belong to the..
Actinomycetes (high D-C, G+ bacteria)
Why do mycobacteria belong to gram+ bacteria when gram staining is unclear?
On DNA-level: Mycobact. Looks more like Gram-positive bacteria, but when looking at the build-up of the cell envelope they look more like the Gram-negative bacteria.
Mycobacterial outer membrane: two characteristics?
- No LPS
- Responsible for impermeable barrier
Composition of the mycobacterial cell envelope?
- Normal inner membrane
- Slightly different peptidoglycan: different side group because of sugar molecules: NAC is the same, NAM is slightly different (not major reason why cell envelope is so different)
- Has a unique structure: arabinogalactan. Also a sugar structure, connected to the peptidoglycan.
- On top of this, you have the OM composed of mycolic acids. Major components of second lipid layer, connected to arabinogalactan. Some are also ‘free’ lipids, like trehalose dimycolate
What are myolic acids?
- Very long fatty acids (C70-C90)
- Tend to fold in certain shapes
- Many of them are glycosylated
What bacteria have myolic acids?
Corynebacteriales (subgroup of actinobacteria)