New Delhi: In their efforts to find new drug targets against tuberculosis, Indian researchers have identified the role of a protein which is critical for growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).
Researchers at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in collaboration with CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) have determined the role of FtsQ, a critical cell division protein and shown that both increasing and decreasing amounts of this protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) hampers its growth and division patterns.
This work builds upon research to understand regulatory roles of set of enzymes known as protein kinases in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. “We were investigating role of phosphorylation, a process which involves addition of phosphate group, of protein in controlling cell division. Interestingly, Cell division protein FtsQ was identified as one of the targets undergoing such regulatory modification,” said study leader Dr Vinay Kumar Nandicoori.
