<i>Mycobacterium smegmatis</i> MraZ Regulates\nMultiple Genes within and Outside of the <i>dcw</i> Operon\nduring Hypoxia

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the\nmost ancient human tuberculosis pathogen and has been the leading\ncause of death from bacterial infectious diseases throughout human\nhistory. According to the World Health Organization Global Tuberculosis\nReport, in 2022, 7.5 million new tuberculosis cases were identified,\nmarking the highest number of cases since the World Health Organization\ninitiated its worldwide tuberculosis surveillance program in 1995.\nThe 2019 peak was 7.1 million cases, with 5.8 million cases in 2020\nand 6.4 million in 2021. The increase in 2022, which may be attributed\nto the COVID-19 pandemic complicating tuberculosis case tracing, has\nraised concerns. To better understand the regulation spectrum of Mycobacterium smegmatis <i>mraZ</i> under\nhypoxia, we performed a transcriptome analysis of <i>M. smegmatis</i> mutant and wild-type strains using Illumina Agilent 5300 sequencing.\nThe study identified 6898 differentially expressed genes, which were\nannotated with NCBI nonredundant protein sequences, a manually annotated\nand reviewed protein sequence database, Pfam, Clusters of Orthologous\nGroups of Proteins, Gene Ontology, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes\nand Genomes. Several mycobacteria transcriptional regulators, virulence\ngenes, membrane transporters, and cell wall biosynthesis genes were\nannotated. These data serve as a valuable resource for future investigations\nand may offer insight into the development of drugs to combat <i>M. tuberculosis</i> infection.