Robert van de Weerd

TL;DR: It is shown that, in slow-growing mycobacteria, the type VII secretion system ESX-5 plays a major role in the integrity and stability of the capsule, and PPE10 is identified as the substrate responsible for this effect.

TL;DR: It is shown that α-glucan in mycobacteria is exclusively assembled intracellularly utilizing the building block α-maltose-1-phosphate as the substrate for the maltosyltransferase GlgE, with subsequent branching of the polymer by the branching enzyme GlgB.

TL;DR: Gal-3 expression in iDCs is restricted, and Gal-3 protein is localized mainly intracellular, due to the opposite actions of IL-4 and GM-CSF, which may help the DCs be protected against Gal- 3 induced phosphatidylserine exposure and/or apoptosis.

TL;DR: The mechanisms involved in regulation of mycobacterial capsule biosynthesis are studied using a high throughput screen for gene products involved in capsular α-glucan production using a group of mutants that all carried mutations in the ATP-binding cassette phosphate transport locus pst.

TL;DR: The crystal structure of MSMEG_6754 revealed a homodimer in which each monomer comprises two hot‐dog domains characteristic of dehydratase‐like proteins and very similar to the HadAB complex involved in mycolic acid biosynthesis, indicating that MSMEG-6754 plays a critical role in the survival of M. smegmatis within the environmental host.