UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF TREHALOSE IN REGULATING MYCOLIC ACID BIOSYNTHESIS IN MYCOBACTERIA

Abstract

TREHALOSE PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN MYCOBACTERIA, PERFORMING VARIOUS FUNCTIONS SUCH AS BEING THE CARRIAGE OF MYCOLIC ACIDS AND IN THE FUNCTIONALIZATION OF MYCOLIC ACIDS INTO OM GLYCOLIPIDS. EARLIER WORK DONE BY THE AUTHOR SUGGESTED THAT NEW TYPES OF MYCOLIC ACID INTERMEDIATES ARE ACCUMULATING IN BOTH THE PRESENCE AND ABSENCE OF EXOGENOUS TREHALOSE IN A MYCOBACTERIUM SMEGMATIS STRAIN THAT IS AN AUXOTROPH FOR TREHALOSE. HOWEVER, THE IDENTITIES OF THESE INTERMEDIATES HAVE YET TO BE CHARACTERIZED.IN THIS WORK, WE AIMED TO CHARACTERIZE THESE MYCOLIC ACID INTERMEDIATES BY FIRST VERIFYING THEIR IDENTITIES AS MYCOLATES. THEREAFTER, WE TRIED TO CHARACTERIZE THEIR INTERMEDIATES FURTHER TO ELUCIDATE THEIR IDENTITIES. HOWEVER, WE WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN OUR ATTEMPTS. FURTHER OPTIMIZATION OF THE EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED HAS BEEN PLANNED. DATA FROM THESE CHARACTERIZATIONS STUDIES THAT WILL BETTER OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TREHALOSE COULD REGULATE MYCOLIC ACID BIOSYNTHESIS.