The Mycobacterium tuberculosis ESX-5 secretion system enables carbon source utilization and growth in mice

The study goals were to characterize the importance of ESX-5 for Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth in vitro and in mice using a tetracycline-repressible mutant, eccD5 Tet-OFF. We can repress transcription of the eccD5 gene, which encodes a central component of the ESX-5 secretion system, with tetracycline under different experimental conditions to prevent ESX-5 from functioning. We interrogated the importance of ESX-5 for growth with different carbon sources, for export of a PPE protein involved in carbon source utilization, and for survival in macrophages and mice. The data submitted here were generated to identify any potential mutations in the eccD5 Tet-OFF parental strain and derivative eccD5 Tet-OFF isolates recovered from mice.