Mycobacterium Tuberculosis – The Cell Structure

     Welcome again folks! Now that everyone has a general idea of my destructive microbe, lets dig a little deeper through its outer and inner cores. 

     Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is neither a gram positive or gram negative bacterium. A species of M.Tuberculosis is considered to retain certain dyes to their impermeability. Acid fast bacteria (Nocardia) are able to retain this certain dye if treated with acidified organic compounds such as a Ziehl-Neelsen stain. With the right tests, It is rod-shaped (bacilli), non-motile and is not able to form spores. The length varies from it being 0.2-0.8 micrometers by 1.0-10.0 micrometers, and 0.2 -0.5 in width. 

http://http://textbookofbacteriology.net/MTBCDC.jpg

Video Showing Acid fast bacteria stained:

Since M. Tuberculosis is an obligate aerobe, its complexes are usually found in the oxygenated upper lobe of the lungs. The cell wall contains and inner and outer layer encased by a plasma membrane. The inner walls are composed of peptidoglycan. The outer wall contains lipids and proteins in which the short and long chains of fatty acids complement the short and long chains of the inner walls. Some of these lipids and proteins include mycolic acids, glycolipids, lipomannan, and mannoglycoproteins. Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) are lipid-linked polysaccharides which are contained in the outer layer. The outer proteins and lipids are crucial to their makeup since most of the signaling occurs here and how it interacts with the immune system. An interesting thing about this bacteria is that it having a thick mycolic acid layer does not do it justice since it does cause the slow growth of mycobacteria, it still has cellular resistance to degradation from lysosomal enzymes. 

Reference: 

      Hett, Erik C., and Eric J. Rubin. “Bacterial Growth and Cell Division: a MycobacterialPerspective.” Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, American Society for Microbiology, 1 Mar. 2008, mmbr.asm.org/content/72/1/126.

     Kleinnijenhuis, Johanneke & Oosting, Marije & Joosten, Leo & Netea, Mihai & Van Crevel, Reinout. (2011). Innate Immune Recognition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Clinical & developmental immunology. 2011. 405310. 10.1155/2011/405310.

One Response

  1. akhademtabrizi1 at |

    I did not know that Tuberculosis cannot be classified by Gram-stain. What are some significant advantage to having a thick and impermeable mycolic acid layer? The benefit must outweigh the trade off for this structure to be retained in evolution.

    Reply

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