[Molecular mechanism of the integration and lysis of mycobacteriophage]

Tuberculosis remains one of the major threats to public health. China is one of the heavy TB burden countries. Novel drugs and vaccines are urgently needed to combat the increasingly multidrug resistant TB. Mycobacteriophage is one of the hot topic in TB novel drugs discovery and drug susceptibility test. Phages can multiply via two alternative mechanisms: the lytic cycle or the lysogenic cycle. The lytic cycle ends with the lysis and death of the host cell, whereas the host cell remains alive in the lysogenic cycle. Lysogenic mycobacteriophages were intensively studied to elucidate the integration and lysis mechanisms of mycobacteriophage. The integration of mycobacteriophage requires for attP of bacteriopahge genome, attB of Mycobacterium genome, integrase and integration host factor. Some lysogenic phage, eg. mycobacteriophage Ms6, employ lytic cycle, form new phage, lysis host by the cooperation of lysin and holin, and release phages. There is no reports as to the mycobacteriophage unique to China clinical or environmental isolates. Studies on the integration and lysis molecular mechanism of mycobacteriophage might facilitate future new anti-TB drugs development.