Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a acid fast bacteria, which can form acid-stable complexes when certain arylmethane dyes are added. (4) All species of mycobacteria have ropelike structures of peptidoglycan that are arranged in such a way to give them properties of an acid fast bacteria. (4) Mycobacteria are abundant in soil and water, but Mycobacterium tuberculosis is mainly identified as a pathogen that lives in the host. Some species in its Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex have adapted their genetic structure specifically to infect human populations.
M. tuberculosis can be isolated in labs and stored at –80 degrees to be studied extensively, and the most commonly used strain of M. tuberculosis is the H37Rv strain. One way to study M. tuberculosis in culture is to collect samples of mononuclear cells in peripheral blood samples from a healthy human donor and challenge macrophages with the MTC. M. tuberculosis has very simple growth requirements and is able to grow slowly in harsh conditions. Their acid-fast property is the strongest when there is glycerol around. However, when glucose is the main source of nutrient, the utilization of glycerol by M. tuberculosis is inhibited. Therefore, it’s been shown that glutatmate, and not glucose, is actually the main source of nutrient for initiating growth. (4)
Since as many as 32% of the human population is affected by Tuberculosis (TB), an airborne disease caused by infection of M. tuberculosis in one way or another, and about 10% of them becomes ill per year (6), it is not hard to imagine the significance in understanding the genome of the pathogen to develop and improve strategies for treatment by developing specific drugs that target the gene products of M. tuberculosis.