Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv0198c, a putative matrix metalloprotease is involved in pathogenicity

We are interested in the role of proteases in the biology of the global human pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We have focused on a putative matrix metalloprotease, Rv0198c. In order to investigate its role we constructed an unmarked chromosomal deletion of the gene and analysed the phenotype of the resulting mutant. No differences in growth in axenic culture were seen and there was no measurable change in overall protease activity in cell-free extracts. Transcriptome analysis revealed a small number of changes in gene expression in aerobic growth, with Rv2488c and Rv1971 being over 40-fold up-regulated and qor (Rv1454c) being 20-fold down-regulated; in addition, changes were seen in members of the heat shock regulon. Virulence assays demonstrated that the mutant was able to replicate in human macrophage-like cells (THP-1 cell line) to a comparable degree with the wild-type. However, the mutant was hyper-virulent in the SCID and C57BL/6 mouse models. Our data suggest that Rv0198c plays a role during infection.