Abstract
Mycoplasma penetrans is an obligate parasite that infects the human respiratory and genitourinary tract. From a metabolic point of view, it uses glucose as carbon source and has the arginina Deiminase (ADI) pathway. This pathway allows using the arginina with catabolic aims, with ornithine, CO2, ammonium and ATP as final products. This pathway is made up by the enzymes arginina Deiminase, ornithine carbamoyltransferase, carbamate kinase and an arginina specific transporter.In this work the metabolic function of ADI pathway has been studied analyzing the M. penetrans growth using different culture conditions, specially arginina related conditions and different possible regulatory factors, like pH and glucose. The substrates consumed and the created metabolites have been analyzed by means of means of radioactive precursors, RMN techniques and chemical and enzymatic assays. The operon codifying the ADI pathway proteins has been also characterized both at expression and transcriptional level.
Lastly, transforming strains of M genitalium containing the corresponding genes for catalytic activities of the pathway have been obtained and characterized in order to establish the basis for future investigations in the metabolic engineering field.
| Date of Award | 18 Jul 2008 |
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| Original language | Spanish |
| Supervisor | Josep Antoni Perez Pons (Director) & Enric Querol Murillo (Director) |