Recent Articles

Manganelli R, Proveddi R, Rodrigue S, Beaucher J, Gaudreau L, Smith I. (2004).
Sigma factors and global gene regulation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
J Bacteriol. 2004 Feb;186(4):895-902
PMID: 14761983

Tuberculosis remains a worldwide threat despite the avail-ability of the BCG vaccine and antibiotic treatment. It is estimated that its etiologic agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, infects almost a third of the human population and kills two million people every year. The recent human immunodeficiency virus pandemic, the selection of multidrug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis, and the increased immigration from countries with a high tuberculosis incidence, coupled with increasing poverty and homelessness in these countries, have awakened the developed nations from the widespread apathy toward tuberculosis. Indeed, recent years have seen great progress in the molecular characterization of this efficient human pathogen. However, much work is still needed to understand how M. tuberculosis copes with the numerous environments it encounters in the course of a successful infection. Adaptation to such conditions must require a complex regulation of gene expression.