This is a work in progress article to form an easily understandable starting point for biologists new to TB research. I’m publishing it in incomplete form mainly as a to-do list for myself. The goal is to link to a FEW comprehensive reviews and landmark historical papers because the number of reviews out there is really overwhelming.
This is not for laypersons seeking basic information about TB as a disease, you can easily find that elsewhere.
Anatomy of the bug
In vitro growth characteristics
- Classical growth media
- What is the meaning of Rough vs Smooth colonies
- Approximate doubling times of lab strains
- Why do we grow it in broth with surfactant, and what are the circumstances where yo shouldn’t
- What is OADC
- Decontaminating clinical isolates for culture
- How is MGIT used in research besides clinical diagnostics
- Antibiotic resistance genes that can be used for reporter or expression plasmids
- Transformation of Mtb with plasmids
Genetics
- Mycobrowser: database of genes for Mtb H37Rv and a bunch of other reference species/strains
- The “Rv” numbering system, where does it come from?
- RD1 and what genes are in it (therefore, which antigens would you NOT expect to see adaptive responses to from BCG-vaccinated-only individuals)
- What antigens are in PPD
- What antigens are in Quantiferon
Other differences between Mtb and M.bovis versus non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTMs)
Common lab strains and where they came from
- H37Rv vs H47Ra
- CDC1551
- Erdman
- Strains of BCG
- Strains of smeg