Article Abstract:
The presence of certain enzyme activities was studied in the culture filtrates of the obligate human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. bovis BCG, the opportunistic pathogens M. kansasii and M. fortuitum, and the non-pathogenic species M. phlei and M. smegmatis. Activities of secreted enzymes formed a substantial part of the total enzyme activities of the bacteria and were absent from the culture fluids and the cell surfaces of the non-pathogenic species. The extracellular location of the superoxide dismutase and glutamine synthetase was limited to the obligate pathogens. The molecular structure of the mycobacterial envelopes was found to have an important role in their pathogenicity.
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Article Abstract:
Comparison of the extracellular materials (ECMs) and the surface-exposed materials (SXMs) of five pathogenic and non-pathogenic mycobacterial species reveals that the glycosyl composition of the ECMs and SXMs in a given species are similar. However, the SXMs of M. avium and M. phlei lack arabinose and their polysaccharides lack arabinomannans. Anion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography indicate that the polysaccharides in the materials are neutral. The polysaccharides of ECMs consist of glycogen-like glucans, mannans and arabinomannans of high molecular mass.
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Article Abstract:
The identification and characterization of seroreactive species-specific lipooligosaccharides of Mycobacterium mucogenicum are achieved by analyzing 32 environmental and clinical isolates as well as the gycolipid patterns of reference strains. These lipooligosaccharides feature similarities in fatty acid composition composed of methyl-branched and straight chain fatty acyl substituents.
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