Genetic Diversity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Sebastien Gagneux

DNA Metabolism in Mycobacterial Pathogenesis

Digby F. Warner, Tone Tønjum and Valerie Mizrahi

Molecular Biology of Drug Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tasha Smith, Kerstin A. Wolff, and Liem Nguyen

Antimicrobial Efflux Pumps and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Tolerance: Evolutionary Considerations

John D. Szumowski, Kristin N. Adams, Paul H. Edelstein, and Lalita Ramakrishnan

Getting Across the Cell Envelope: Mycobacterial Protein Secretion

Aniek D. van der Woude, Joen Luirink, and Wilbert Bitter

A Single-Cell Perspective on Non-Growing but Metabolically Active (NGMA) Bacteria

Giulia Manina and John D. McKinney

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Metabolism and Host Interaction: Mysteries and Paradoxes

Sabine Ehrt and Kyu Rhee

Surviving the Macrophage: Tools and Tricks Employed by Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Rajesh Jayachandran, Somdeb BoseDasgupta and Jean Pieters

Host-Pathogen Interactions During Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infections

Sarah Stanley and Jeffery S. Cox

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the most notorious pathogens on earth, causing the death of approximately 1.5 million people annually. A major problem in the fight against tuberculosis is the emergence of strains that have acquired resistance to all available antibiotics. One key to the success of M. tuberculosis as a pathogen is its ability to circumvent host immune responses at different levels. This is not only a result of the special makeup of M. tuberculosis in terms of genetic diversity and DNA metabolism and its possession of specialized secretion systems, but also of its ability to hijack the host's innate immune defence mechanisms.

In this volume, researchers from different disciplines provide a topical overview of the diverse mechanisms that contribute to the virulence of M. tuberculosis, ranging from their genetic, metabolic and molecular makeup, as well as the complex strategies these bacteria utilize to escape immune destruction within infected hosts.