Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria

dc.contributor.advisorBlackburn, Jonathan M
dc.contributor.advisorDa Cruz Soares, Nelson
dc.contributor.authorNakedi, Kehilwe Confidence
dc.date.accessioned2019-02-20T09:48:43Z
dc.date.available2019-02-20T09:48:43Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.date.updated2019-02-19T07:18:37Z
dc.description.abstractMycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent for the disease Tuberculosis, is a serious public health problem that is responsible for 1.6 million deaths each year. The WHO’s recent report on Tuberculosis estimates that a third of the world’s population is latently infected with the bacteria, and, of those, 10% will progress to active disease. M. tuberculosis is a successful pathogen mainly due to its ability to adapt and survive in changing environments. It can survive a dormant state with limited metabolic activity during latent infection, while also being able to escape the macrophage and disseminate into active disease. Efforts to eradicate the disease must be based on understanding the biology of this organism, and the mechanisms it uses to infect, colonize, and evade the immune system. Understanding the behaviour of pathogenic mycobacteria in the macrophage is also important to the discovery of new drug targets. In this thesis, we employed state of the art mass spectrometry techniques, which allowed us to unpack the biology of this bacterium in different growth environments and expand our understanding of the mechanisms it employs to adapt and survive. We investigated protein regulation by the process of phosphorylation, through sensory kinases, which add a phosphate group to a protein of interest, thereby regulating its function. First, we interrogated the phosphoproteomic landscape between M. bovis BCG and M. smegmatis to explain how differential protein regulation results in the differences between slow and fast growth of mycobacteria. Second, we focused on Protein Kinase G (PknG), which plays an important role in bacterial survival by blocking phagosome/lysosome fusion. We identified the in vivo physiological substrates of this kinase in actively growing M.bovis BCG culture. Our results revealed that this kinase is a regulator of protein synthesis. We then examined the mechanisms of survival in murine RAW 246.7 macrophages mediated by PknG, using M. bovis BCG reference strain and PknG knock-out mutant. Our results indicated strong evidence that pathogenic mycobacteria disrupt the macrophagic cytoskeleton, through phosphorylation of proteins that are involved in cytoskeleton rearrangement. These results explain the strategies that pathogenic mycobacteria employ mediated by PknG to block phagosome-lysosome fusion and evade the host immune system and survive for prolonged periods in the macrophages. The findings of this thesis contribute to our understanding of the physiology of pathogenic mycobacteria and their interaction with the host.
dc.identifier.apacitationNakedi, K. C. (2018). <i>Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria</i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Health Sciences ,Division of Chemical and Systems Biology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29707en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationNakedi, Kehilwe Confidence. <i>"Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Health Sciences ,Division of Chemical and Systems Biology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29707en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNakedi, K. 2018. Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Nakedi, Kehilwe Confidence AB - Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent for the disease Tuberculosis, is a serious public health problem that is responsible for 1.6 million deaths each year. The WHO’s recent report on Tuberculosis estimates that a third of the world’s population is latently infected with the bacteria, and, of those, 10% will progress to active disease. M. tuberculosis is a successful pathogen mainly due to its ability to adapt and survive in changing environments. It can survive a dormant state with limited metabolic activity during latent infection, while also being able to escape the macrophage and disseminate into active disease. Efforts to eradicate the disease must be based on understanding the biology of this organism, and the mechanisms it uses to infect, colonize, and evade the immune system. Understanding the behaviour of pathogenic mycobacteria in the macrophage is also important to the discovery of new drug targets. In this thesis, we employed state of the art mass spectrometry techniques, which allowed us to unpack the biology of this bacterium in different growth environments and expand our understanding of the mechanisms it employs to adapt and survive. We investigated protein regulation by the process of phosphorylation, through sensory kinases, which add a phosphate group to a protein of interest, thereby regulating its function. First, we interrogated the phosphoproteomic landscape between M. bovis BCG and M. smegmatis to explain how differential protein regulation results in the differences between slow and fast growth of mycobacteria. Second, we focused on Protein Kinase G (PknG), which plays an important role in bacterial survival by blocking phagosome/lysosome fusion. We identified the in vivo physiological substrates of this kinase in actively growing M.bovis BCG culture. Our results revealed that this kinase is a regulator of protein synthesis. We then examined the mechanisms of survival in murine RAW 246.7 macrophages mediated by PknG, using M. bovis BCG reference strain and PknG knock-out mutant. Our results indicated strong evidence that pathogenic mycobacteria disrupt the macrophagic cytoskeleton, through phosphorylation of proteins that are involved in cytoskeleton rearrangement. These results explain the strategies that pathogenic mycobacteria employ mediated by PknG to block phagosome-lysosome fusion and evade the host immune system and survive for prolonged periods in the macrophages. The findings of this thesis contribute to our understanding of the physiology of pathogenic mycobacteria and their interaction with the host. DA - 2018 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2018 T1 - Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria TI - Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29707 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/29707
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationNakedi KC. Comprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria. []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Health Sciences ,Division of Chemical and Systems Biology, 2018 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29707en_ZA
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.departmentDivision of Chemical and Systems Biology
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Health Sciences
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherMycobacterium tuberculosis
dc.subject.otherpathogenic mycobacteria
dc.titleComprehensive definition of Ser/Thr/Tyr phosphorylation in mycobacteria: towards understanding reprogramming of normal macrophage function by pathogenic mycobacteria
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD
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