Table 1.
Putative glycosyltransferases for cell-wall synthesis
| M. leprae | M. tuberculosis Rv | M. bovis | M. avium | C. diphtheriae | Comments |
| Putative mannosyltransferases for PIM, LM and LAM biosynthesis | |||||
| ML0886 | Rv2188c | Y 99/99 | Y 80/85 | Y 50/63 | Homologous to pimB (Rv0557) [39] |
| ML1715 | Rv3032 | Y100/100 | Y 87/92 | ? 29/40 | Homologous to pimB |
| ML0452 | Rv2610c | Y100/100 | Y 88/91 | Y 48/62 | Homologous to pimB; a candidate mannosyltransferase for PIM1 |
| synthesis; part of a cluster of three genes in all these organisms, the | |||||
| other two being phosphatidylinositol synthase gene (pgsA) and a | |||||
| putative acyltransferase [38] | |||||
| ML2583 | Rv0225 | Y100/100 | Y 86/94 | Y 50/64 | Homologous to pimB |
| Putative synthases of polyprenyl-P sugar donors for mannan and arabinan synthesis | |||||
| ML2443 | Rv0486 | Y 100/100 | Y 90/95 | Y 51/69 | Homologous to pimB; confers mannosamine resistance in |
| M. smegmatis; probably involved in LM and LAM biosynthesis [39] | |||||
| ML1440 | Rv2051c | Y 99/99 | Y 69/76 | ? 39/56 | Probable polyprenyl-P mannosyltransferase |
| ML0207 | Rv3631 | Y 100/100 | Y 84/91 | ? 39/54 | |
| Putative glycosyltransferases for AG synthesis | |||||
| ML0752 | Rv3265c | Y 98/98 | Y 83/88 | Y 51/66 | Probably wbbl (rhamnosyltransferase for linker-unit synthesis) |
| ML0113 | Rv3782 | Y 100/100 | Y 87/91 | Y 62/73 | Putative ligase of lipid-linked AG to PG; part of the putative |
| AG-biosynthetic gene cluster [23]; also found in a similar cluster in | |||||
| C. diptheriae | |||||
| Putative glycosyltransferases for PGL synthesis | |||||
| ML2348 | Rv1524 | Y 100/100 | Y 65/79 | ? | Homologous to rhamnosyltransferase (rtfA) of M. avium [44] and |
| or Rv1526c | Y 100/100 | Y 61/74 | ? | plant and microbial glucosyl or 6-deoxyglycosyl transferases; | |
| candidate rhamnosyltransferase for PGL-I | |||||
| ML0125 | Rv2962c | Y 99/99 | ? 27/41 | ? | Clustered with methyltransferases (ML0127/Rv2959c); candidate |
| genes for glycosyltransferases in PGL-I synthesis | |||||
| ML0128 | Rv2958c | Y 99/99 | C-terminal | ? | See comments for ML0125 |
| Putative mannosyltransferase for glycoproteins (O-linked) | |||||
| ML0192 | Rv1002c | Y 99/99 | Y 85/91 | Y 42/59 | Some homology to protein mannosyltransferases in yeast |
| Unassigned glycosyltransferases | |||||
| ML1064 | Rv1208 | Y 100/100 | Y 81/87 | Y 49/59 | |
| ML0985 | Rv2739c | Y 100/100 | Y 85/90 | ? | Similar to Pseudomonas aeruginosa rhamnosyltransferase |
| M. tuberculosis glycosyltransferases with no homologs in M. leprae | |||||
| Rv numbers 0539, 0696, 1781c, 1500, 1513, 1514c, 1516c, 1518,1520,1525 | Possibly involved in synthesis of glycans and glucans; not present in | ||||
| M. leprae | |||||
Genes were identified by finding homologs for known glycosyltransferases in M. tuberculosis and M. leprae genomes. The Rv and ML numbers are as listed in the Sanger Centre databases [2,4]. Entries for the unfinished genomes of M. bovis, M. avium and C. diphtheriae are represented by 'Y' for yes, followed by % identity / % similarity at the amino-acid level, if homologous regions could be found, and '?' if no homologs were found at this stage of the sequencing. Funding sources for unfinished genome sequencing are: Beowulf Genomics (C. diphtheriae), MAFF and Beowulf Genomics (M. bovis) and NIAID (M. avium).