Tuberculosis: New insights into the pathogen

Researchers at the University of Würzburg and the Spanish Cancer Research Centre have gained new insights into the pathogen that causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious infectious disease that is typically spread through aerosols and mainly affects the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1.7 million people die from such an infection worldwide every year. In addition, a quarter of the world's population carries a form of tuberculosis that lies dormant without symptoms for a long time, but can break out eventually. Nanomachines in the cell envelope . During infection Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the main causative agent of tuberculosis, secretes a large number of effector proteins through type VII secretion systems - small nanomachines which are composed of proteins that reside in the cell envelope. The effector proteins are specialized in fighting the immune defense or enable the uptake of nutrients to ensure the bacterial survival in the host. How these central secretion systems work, is still poorly understood. Scientists from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) and the Spanish Cancer Research Centre CNIO (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas) have now succeeded in deciphering the molecular architecture of these nanomachines. Dr. Sebastian Geibel, who heads a research group at the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology funded by the Bavarian Elite Network and who is also affiliated with the Rudolf Virchow Centre of the JMU, was in charge of this work. The scientists have published their work in the current issue of the journal Nature. Measurements at very low temperatures