Team of Scientists Uncovers Genetics of Tuberculosis

Scientists have pulled off the equivalent of stealing an enemy fort’s blueprints: They’ve deciphered all the genetic material of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. That should help researchers develop new drugs and vaccines by exposing potential targets within the germ.

The accomplishment is reported in today’s issue of the journal Nature by scientists in the United States, England, France and Denmark.

The scientists found about 4,000 genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Many proteins created with instructions from those genes might be useful for vaccine research, said study author Stewart Cole of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. They also found evidence of proteins the bacterium might use to escape being destroyed by the immune system, he said.

But it won’t be easy to put the mass of new information to practical use, microbiologist Douglas Young of the Imperial College School of Medicine in London cautioned.

One possible target for drugs would be enzymes the bacterium uses to make its cell walls, he said.