Complexity Digest 2008.33 - 12

14-Aug-2008

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Tuberculosis: Shrewd Survival Strategy, Nature Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: The bacterium that causes tuberculosis is one of the most successful pathogens. Its spread among humans has been so efficient that as much as one-third of the world's population is now believed to be infected. In most cases, these infections cause clinically silent disease, which is likely to remain permanently dormant unless the host's immunity is substantially compromised. The extraordinary stealth and opportunism that Mycobacterium tuberculosis exhibits results from the complex and delicately coordinated way in which it interacts with its host ¡X a process controlled in part by a specialized bacterial protein-secretion system called ESX-1.