Team ``Pato-adaptive evolution of the M. Tuberculosis complex to its host``
IP: Jesus Gonzalo-Asensio
TB affects humans but also several species of mammals. Its causative agents are included within the M. tuberculosis Complex (MTBC). The MTBC comprises 8 lineages with greater than 99.95% homology at the genomic level. This, coupled with the absence of “classical” virulence factors or the lack of horizontal gene transfer events, makes understanding host-pathogen adaptation mechanisms challenging. Our team has deciphered how a polymorphism in the PhoPR virulence system causes its loss of functionality in the bacterium that causes bovine TB (M. bovis) compared to the human pathogen (M. tuberculosis). In parallel, we have observed how the transposition dynamics of the IS6110 transposon is specific to each MTBC lineage. Both findings have allowed us to decipher the molecular bases of the adaptation of a strange strain of M. bovis capable of being transmitted between humans