In silico analysis of DosR regulon proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

One of the challenges faced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) in dormancy is hypoxia. DosR/DevR of M. tuberculosis is a two component dormancy survival response regulator which induces the expression of 48 genes. In this study, we have used DosR regulon proteins of M. tuberculosis H37Rv as the query set and performed a comprehensive homology search against the non-redundant database. Homologs were found in environmental mycobacteria, environmental bacteria and archaebacteria. Analysis of genomic context of DosR regulon revealed that they are distributed as nine blocks in the genome of M. tuberculosis with many transposases and integrases in their vicinity. Further, we classified DosR regulon proteins into eight functional categories. One of the hypothetical proteins Rv1998c could probably be a methylisocitrate lyase or a phosphonomutase. Another hypothetical protein, Rv0572 was found only in mycobacteria. Insights gained in this study can potentially aid in the development of novel therapeutic interventions.