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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Identification of Virulence Markers of Mycobacterium abscessus for Intracellular Replication in Phagocytes
Published on: September 27, 2018
Mycobacterium smegmatis displays the Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence-related neutral red character when
Núria Andreu1, Carlos Y Soto, Ignasi Roca
1Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Spain.
Abstract:
Neutral red staining is a cytochemical reaction that has been found to be related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence and, therefore, the component involved in it is thought to be a virulence factor. To study the molecular basis of this reaction we constructed an M. tuberculosis cosmid library in Mycobacterium smegmatis and selected recombinant neutral red positive clones. Heterologous complementation identified Rv0577 as the gene responsible for this trait and we have also shown that it is expressed as a single polycistronic unit together with Rv0576 which could also be involved in the neutral red staining.
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