An effective way to combat tuberculosis has been discovered

Researchers from Oxford and Surrey have made a breakthrough in understanding the survival mechanisms of the tuberculosis pathogen. According to a study published in the prestigious scientific journal The EMBO Journal, the tuberculosis bacillus uses an unusual chemical mechanism - ADP-ribosylation of DNA - to control its own growth and adapt to conditions in the human body.

At the center of the discovery is the enzyme DarT, which applies a special modifying group to the bacterium's DNA, temporarily suspending the processes of replication and translation. Notably, this process is reversible thanks to a second enzyme - DarG, which is capable of removing these chemical markers.

Scientists have for the first time created a detailed map of such modifications and discovered that they accumulate particularly intensively at the starting point of DNA replication, as well as in genes responsible for responding to stressful conditions and metal deficiency.

The results of the experiments were impressive: when researchers deprived the bacterium of the ability to remove these modifications, it stopped growing and lost viability. This discovery could form the basis for developing fundamentally new methods to combat tuberculosis, including its resistant forms, which can hide in the body in an inactive state for years.

The study is particularly significant because the discovered regulatory system represents the first documented case where modification of the DNA base directly affects gene expression in a living organism.