"A re-evaluation of M. prototuberculosis": continuing the debate

• Published in: PLoS pathogens Vol. 2; no. 9; p. e95
• Main Authors: Brisse, Sylvain, Supply, Philip, Brosch, Roland, Vincent, Veronique, Gutierrez, M Cristina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.09.2006; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Biodiversity; Debates; Eubacteria; Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Evolutionary biology; Genes; Genes, Bacterial; Genetic aspects; Genetics, Population; Genomes; Human health and pathology; Infectious Diseases; Life Sciences; Microbiology; Molecular Biology - Structural Biology; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - classification; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - genetics; Opinions; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Populations and Evolution; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Species Specificity; Tuberculosis; United States
• ISSN: 1553-7374; 1553-7366; 1553-7374
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.0020095

[...]Figure 1 shows our unpublished sequences of the 5' end of the 16S rRNA gene in different lineages of the smooth tubercle bacilli. From the perspective of this obligate pathogen, this balance is absolutely essential to maintain its so-successful life cycle, and it is very reasonable to think that this adaptation has evolved during a long-lasting co-evolution between the bacterium and its host. [...]our scenario offers a novel working frame to solve the apparent paradox between this exquisite adaptation and the previously hypothesized recent evolutionary origin of the pathogen [22] .