[ATP-binding cassette transporters and transmembrane transport in Mycobacterium tuberculosis--a review]

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an intracellular bacterium, mainly lives in the phagosome of the macrophage. It utilizes competitive uptake of nutrients as well as active efflux of noxious compounds to maintain its survival. Thus, the ATP-binding cassette transporters involved in either process mentioned above are essential for its pathogenicity. There are 38 ATP-binding cassette transporters identified in the genome of M. tuberculosis. This sort of proteins facilitate the transport of various substrates ranging from ions, sugars, amino acids, oligopeptides and drugs. In this review, we summarized the substrate specificity and transport mechanism of these transporters and their relationship with virulence in M. tuberculosis.