comparative genomics analysis of mycobacterium ulcerans for the identification of putative essential genes and therapeutic candidates比较基因组学分析的溃疡分枝杆菌鉴定的重要基因和治疗候选人.pdfVIP

Comparative Genomics Analysis of Mycobacterium ulcerans for the Identification of Putative Essential Genes and Therapeutic Candidates 1 . 2. 3 4 Azeem Mehmood Butt * , Izza Nasrullah , Shifa Tahir , Yigang Tong * 1 National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, 2 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, 3 National Center for Bioinformatics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, 4 State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Abstract Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer, is the third most common mycobacterial disease after tuberculosis and leprosy. The present treatment options are limited and emergence of treatment resistant isolates represents a serious concern and a need for better therapeutics. Conventional drug discovery methods are time consuming and labor-intensive. Unfortunately, the slow growing nature of M. ulcerans in experimental conditions is also a barrier for drug discovery and development. In contrast, recent advancements in complete genome sequencing, in combination with cheminformatics and computational biology, represent an attractive alternative approach for the identification of therapeutic candidates worthy of experimental research. A computational, comparative genomics workflow was defined for the identification of novel therapeutic candidates against M. ulcerans, with the aim that a selected target should be essential to the pathogen, and have no homolog