Ningning Song , Yongqiang Zhu , Yingying Cui , Mingyue Lv , Yiyi Tang , Ziyin Cui , Guanghui Dang , Huajun Zheng , Siguo Liu 

Front Microbiol. 2020 Apr 22;11:812. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00812. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Vitamins are essential nutrients and key cofactors of enzymes that regulate cellular metabolism, and also activate the immune system. Recent studies have shown that vitamin B1 (VB 1) and vitamin C (Vc) can inhibit Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth, but the precise mechanism is still not well understood. In the present study, we have used RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing to analyze the transcriptional, metabolic and methylation profiles of Mycobacterium bovis BCG when treated with VB 1 and Vc. Our results show that, after vitamin treatment, variant metabolites were mainly clustered in pathways related to amino acid metabolism. Treatment with both vitamins significantly up-regulated the gene encoding cysteine synthase A. Additionally, only BCG that was treated with VC showed m4c modifications. Genes harboring this methylation were up-regulated, suggesting that m4c methylation can promote gene transcription to some extent. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the effects of VB 1 and VC, and suggests that these vitamins constitute potential anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Keywords: Mycobacterium; amino acid; cysterine synthase A; methylation; vitamin.

Copyright © 2020 Song, Zhu, Cui, Lv, Tang, Cui, Dang, Zheng and Liu.