Mechanisms of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

katGI and katGII encode two different catalases-peroxidases in Mycobacterium fortuitum

It has been suggested that catalase-peroxidase plays an important role in several aspects of mycobacterial metabolism and is a virulence factor in the main pathogenic mycobacteria. In this investigation, we studied genes encoding for this protein in the fast-growing opportunistic pathogen Mycobacterium fortuitum. Nucleotide sequences of two different catalase-peroxidase genes (katGI and katGII) of M. fortuitum are described. They show only 64% homology at the nucleotide level and 55% identity at the amino acid level, and they are more similar to catalases-peroxidases from different bacteria, including mycobacteria, than to each other. Both proteins were found to be expressed in actively growing M. fortuitum, and both could also be expressed when transformed into Escherichia coli and M. aurum. We detected the presence of a copy of IS6100 in the neighboring region of a katG gene in the M. fortuitum strain in which this element was identified (strain FC1). The influence of each katG gene on isoniazid (isonicotinic acid hydrazide; INH) susceptibility of mycobacteria was checked by using the INH-sensitive M. aurum as the host. Resistance to INH was induced when katGI was transformed into INH-sensitive M. aurum, suggesting that this enzyme contributes to the natural resistance of M. fortuitum to the drug. This is the first report showing two different genes encoding same enzyme activity which are actively expressed within the same mycobacterial strain.