A genuine mycobacterial thermophile: growth, survival and GpgS stability at near-pasteurization temperatures.

is so far the most thermophilic among mycobacteria as it grows optimally at 50 °C and up to 65 °C in a glycerol-based medium, as verified in this study. Since this and other nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) thrive in diverse natural and artificial environments, from where they may access and infect humans, we deemed essential to probe resistance to heat, a strategy routinely used to control microbial growth in water-supply systems, as well as in the food and drink industries. In addition to possibly being a threat in its own right in rare occasions, is also a good surrogate for studying other NTM species more often associated with opportunistic infection, namely and as well as their strictly pathogenic counterparts and . In this regard, this thermophilic species is likely to be useful as a source of stable proteins that may provide more detailed structures of potential drug targets. Here, we investigate growth at near-pasteurization temperatures and at different pHs and also characterize its thermostable glucosyl-3-phosphoglycerate synthase (GpgS), an enzyme considered essential for growth and associated with both nitrogen starvation and thermal stress in different NTM species.