Revisiting the Assignment of Rv0241c to Fatty Acid Synthase Type II of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The fatty acid synthase type II enzymatic complex of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (FAS-II Mt ) catalyzes an essential metabolic pathway involved in the biosynthesis of major envelope lipids, mycolic acids. The partner proteins of this singular FAS-II system represent relevant targets for antituberculous drug design. Two heterodimers of the hydratase 2 protein family, HadAB and HadBC, were shown to be involved in the (3 R )-hydroxyacyl-ACP dehydration (HAD) step of FAS-II Mt cycles. Recently, an additional member of this family, Rv0241c, was proposed to have the same function, based on the heterologous complementation of a HAD mutant of the yeast mitochondrial FAS-II system. In the present work, Rv0241c was able to complement a HAD mutant in the Escherichia coli model but not a dehydratase-isomerase deficient mutant. However, an enzymatic study of the purified protein demonstrated that Rv0241c possesses a broad chain length specificity for the substrate, unlike FAS-II Mt enzymes. Most importantly, Rv0241c exhibited a strict dependence on the coenzyme A (CoA) as opposed to AcpM, the natural acyl carrier protein bearing the chains elongated by FAS-II Mt . The deletion of Rv0241c showed that this gene is not essential to M. tuberculosis survival in vitro . The resulting mutant did not display any change in the mycolic acid profile. This demonstrates that Rv0241c is a trans -2-enoyl-CoA hydratase/3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydratase that does not belong to FAS-II Mt . The relevance of a heterologous complementation strategy to identifying proteins of such a system is questioned.