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. 2020 Sep 9;8(9):1380. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8091380

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© 2020 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Mycobacteria–protozoa symbiosis. Pathogenicity islands (PI) promote mycobacteria invasion into amoeba, leading to phagocytosis. Three outcomes can result from this phagocytosis process: mycobacteria evade the lysosome and multiply, causing amoeba lysis; mycobacteria cannot evade the lysosome, causing mycobacteria death; or a symbiotic relationship occurs, with phosphatases encoded by the ptpA, ptpB, sapM genes being produced and excreted by the ESX-4 type VII secretion system. The symbiosis can lead to mycobacteria encystment or escapement from the amoeba. The information presented in this figure was combined from several studies regarding various non-tuberculous mycobacteria species.