Matthieu Chavent
Laboratoire de Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaires (LMGM), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse 31400, France
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen responsible for the infectious disease tuberculosis, is known for its thick and waxy envelope constituted of numerous complex lipids (1). These lipids act both as building blocks to organize the envelope (2) and as virulence factors that destabilize the host membrane (3) or interact with host-cell receptors (4). I will present our recent work on modeling mycobacterial lipids and on their organization in the mycobacterial membranes. I will also briefly discuss the need to share models with the scientific community in the context of our MDverse project (5).
References:
- T. Brown, M. Chavent, W. Im, Molecular Modeling and Simulation of the Mycobacterial Cell Envelope: From Individual Components to Cell Envelope Assemblies. J. Phys. Chem. B (2023). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c06136.
- C. M. Brown, et al., Supramolecular organization and dynamics of mannosylated phosphatidylinositol lipids in the mycobacterial plasma membrane. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 120, e2212755120 (2023).
- J. Augenstreich, et al., The conical shape of DIM lipids promotes Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of macrophages. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 116, 25649–25658 (2019).
- M. Noriega, et al., Coarse-Graining the Recognition of a Glycolipid by the C-Type Lectin Mincle Receptor. J. Phys. Chem. B 128, 9935–9946 (2024).
- J. K. Tiemann, et al., MDverse, shedding light on the dark matter of molecular dynamics simulations. eLife 12, RP90061 (2024).
