Conclusion
We conclude that Rv0494 is important for persister survival and may serve as a good target for developing new antibiotics that kill persister bacteria for improved treatment of persistent bacterial infections.
Methods
We constructed a Rv0494 deletion mutant strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and evaluated the susceptibility of the mutant strain to antibiotics using a persistence test.
Purpose
Fatty acid metabolism plays an important role in the survival and pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. During dormancy, lipids are considered to be the main source of energy. A previous study found that Rv0494 is a starvation-inducible, lipid-responsive transcriptional regulator. However, the role of Rv0494 in bacterial persister survival has not been studied.
Results
We found that mutations in Rv0494 lead to survival defects of persisters, which reflected in increased sensitivity to isoniazid.