Mary Jackson
Assistant Professor

Phone: 491-3582
Fax: 491-1815
Email: Mary.Jackson@Colostate.Edu
Office: B222 Microbiology Building
Lab: B330 Microbiology Building

 

Degrees

• M.Sc. - Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes, France.
• Ph. D. - Institut Pasteur, Paris; Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes, France

Research Interests

Our research focuses on the elucidation, using genetic approaches, of the enzymes, transporters and regulatory systems involved in the production, transport across the different layers of the mycobacterial cell envelope and assembly of (glyco)lipids, fatty acids and (lipo)polysaccharides playing important roles in the physiology and/or pathogenicity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

In particular, we are interested in deciphering the pathways leading to the biosynthesis of mycolic acids, phosphatidylinositol mannosides (PIM), lipomannan (LM) and lipoarabinomannan (LAM), all abundant components of the mycobacterial cell envelope that play important roles in the physiology of these bacteria as well as during host/pathogen interactions in the course of tuberculosis and leprosy.

In addition to providing fundamental knowledge about the biochemistry of M. tuberculosis, the broad goals of our work are to i) determine the contribution of various cell envelope components to pathogenicity, ii) identify novel anti-tuberculosis drug targets and, iii), generate novel attenuated mycobacterial strains as candidate live vaccines against tuberculosis.

Selected Publications

• Pelicic, V., Jackson, M., Reyrat, J.-M., Jacobs Jr., W. R., Gicquel, B. & C. Guilhot (1997). Efficient allelic exchange and transposon mutagenesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 94, 10955-10960.
• Jackson, M., Raynaud, C., Lanéelle, M.-A., Guilhot, C., Laurent-Winter, C., Ensergueix, D., Gicquel B. & M. Daffé (1999). Inactivation of the antigen 85C gene profoundly affects the mycolate content and alters the permeability of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell envelope. Mol. Microbiol., 31, 1573-1587.
• Jackson, M., Phalen, S. W., Lagranderie, M., Ensergueix, D., Chavarot, P., Marchal, G., McMurray, D. N., Gicquel, B. & C. Guilhot (1999). Persistence and protective efficacy of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis auxotroph vaccine. Infect. Immun., 67, 2867-2873.
• Jackson, M., Crick, D. C. & P. J. Brennan (2000). Phosphatidylinositol is an essential phospholipid of mycobacteria. J. Biol. Chem., 275, 30092-30099.
• Raynaud, C., C. Guilhot, J. Rauzier, Y. Bordat, V. Pelicic, R. Manganelli, I. Smith, B. Gicquel, & M. Jackson (2002). Phospholipases C are involved in the virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mol. Microbiol. 45, 203-217.
• Korduláková, J., M. Gilleron, K. Mikusová, G. Puzo, P. J. Brennan, B. Gicquel, & M. Jackson (2002). Definition of the first mannosylation step in phosphatidylinositol synthesis: PimA is essential for growth of mycobacteria. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 31335-31344.
• Korduláková, J., Gilleron, M., Puzo, G., Brennan, P. J., Gicquel, B., Mikusová, K. & Jackson, M. (2003). Identification of the required acyltransferase step in the biosynthesis of the phosphatidylinositol mannosides of Mycobacterium species. J. Biol. Chem., 278, 36285-36295.
• Rousseau, C., Winter, N., Pivert, E., Bordat, Y., Neyrolles, O., Avé, P., Huerre, M., Gicquel, B. & Jackson, M. (2004). Production of phthiocerol dimycocerosates protects Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the cidal activity of reactive nitrogen intermediates produced by macrophages and modulates the early immune response to infection. Cell. Microbiol., 6, 277-287.
• Gonzalo Asensio, J., Maia, C., Ferrer, N.L., Barilone, N., Laval, F., Soto, C., Winter, N., Daffé, M., Gicquel, B., Martin, C., & Jackson, M. (2006) The virulence-associated two-component PhoP-PhoR system controls the biosynthesis of polyketide-derived lipids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J. Biol. Chem. 281: 1313-1316.
• Sulzenbacher, G., Canaan, S., Bordat, Y., Neyrolles, O., Stadthagen, G., Roig-Zamboni, V., Rauzier, J., Maurin, D., Laval, F., Daffé, M., Cambillau, C., Gicquel, B., Bourne, Y., & Jackson, M. (2006) LppX is a lipoprotein required for the translocation of phthiocerol dimycocerosates to the surface of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. EMBO J. 25 : 1436-1444.
• Kaur, D., Berg, S., Dinadayala, P., Gicquel, B., Chatterjee, D., McNeil, M.R., Vissa, V., Crick, D.C., Jackson, M., and Brennan, P.J. (2006) Biosynthesis of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan: Role of a branching mannosyltransferase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 13664-13669.