Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

In this infographic, the genetics, phylogeny, physiology, and pathogenesis mechanisms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are shown. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the etiological agent of tuberculosis (TB), the leading cause of death due to a single infectious agent, claiming 1.7 million lives in 2016. Of the deaths attributable to TB in 2016, 22% occurred in people coinfected with HIV, and close to 5% of the 10.4 million incident cases of this disease were resistant to at least two of the first-line TB drugs. In this infographic, we describe the fundamental features of the genetics, phylogeny, and physiology of this member of the phylum Actinobacteria, which is associated increasingly with drug resistance mediated by mutations and rearrangements in its single, circular chromosome. We also highlight the key pathogenesis mechanisms employed by this slow-growing, facultative intracellular bacterium, which include avoidance of host cell clearance by arrest of the normal macrophage maturation process.