Kishore Srivastava

Adaptive responses and virulence determinants in pathogenic organisms are recurrently controlled by signal transduction systems. Mycobacterium is an unusual pathogen which contains several signal molecules. The signalling pathways in M. tuberculosis comprise of eleven eukaryotic like Serine/Threonine kinases (STPK); eleven complete two component systems (TCS) in form of Histidine sensor kinases; a protein tyrosine kinase (TK) and two protein tyrosine phosphatases (TP). The laboratory is involved in concerted effort to examine the role of all these signal molecules in the physiology and virulence of M. tuberculosis. It is proposed that genetic and biochemical characterizations of these molecules and the downstream determinants comprising their substrates will continue to serve in the understanding of the roles in combating the disease. As a part of the Institute’s mandate, we believe that the exploration of the mechanism is likely to lead to the identification of novel chemical entities which may abet in the successful control of this pathogen.