The Mycobacterium tuberculosis homologue of the Mycobacterium avium mig gene is not specifically expressed in the macrophage

With the completion of genome sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and upsurge in the incidence of M. tuberculosis infection worldwide partly as a result of HIV pandemic, there is need for rationale approach to vaccine and chemotherapy discoveries for M. tuberculosis. The homologue of mig gene of Mycobacterium avium was searched for in the M. tuberculosis database at The Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR), USA and The Sanger Institute, UK. Homologue of the gene was found and comprehensively analysed. Reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) was carried out on the mig (fadD19) gene homologue and echA19 gene. The result of the RT-PCR showed that the mig gene was at least 2-fold upregulated during intracellular infection of macrophage compared to the broth grown bacilli as opposed to the demonstrated specific expression of mig gene in M. avium infected macrophage. The echA19 gene was also found to be upregulated. .