Rv0380c Resolved · high auto-curated

H37Rv Rv0380c · MTBC0 - · 183 aa · 456268–456819 H37Rv (-) · RefSeq NP_214894.1

Genomic neighbourhood (genome browser)

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Annotation: from legacy to revised

Legacy (H37Rv / Mycobrowser)RNA methyltransferase
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotation
Revised (this work)RNA methyltransferase. Pfam: SpoU_methylase (PF00588.25).
Functional category (TubercuList)intermediary metabolism and respiration

Auto-curated: this verdict and function were generated by rules from PGAP + Pfam + Foldseek and have not been hand-reviewed.

Annotated on the H37Rv protein: this gene has no 1:1 ancestral MTBC0 anchor (PE/PPE, paralogue, IS element, or otherwise unanchored CDS).

In the literature (TB corpus sweep) never studied

No publication mentions this gene in its title or abstract — not under its H37Rv locus tag, not under its gene name, and not under any ortholog identifier. Its annotation rests on sequence/structure evidence, with no primary study behind it.

This layer CITES the literature and adds context; it does not change the verdict or the function stated elsewhere in this fiche. This distinguishes a gene that is dark because nobody has looked from one that is dark despite having been studied. Source: PubMed (whole): H37Rv locus tag + GENE NAME + ortholog identifiers (Mb…, MMAR_…, MSMEG_…, ML…, MAB_…), under a mycobacterial context filter; hits verified against the abstract text. Species-context counts distinguish M. tuberculosis literature from literature on other mycobacteria. phase76/phase77, 2026-07-13.

CRISPRi vulnerability

Vulnerability index 0.35 (95% CI -0.52 to 1.83). A more negative index = more vulnerable to knockdown (better drug-target quality); indicative threshold VI ≤ -6 = highly vulnerable.

Quantitative CRISPRi knockdown, graded (finer than binary Tn-seq essentiality). Source: CRISPRi vulnerability index (Bosch 2021, pebble.rockefeller.edu).

Legacy record & comparison (Mycobrowser)

Mycobrowser functionPossibly causes methylation of RNA.
Mycobrowser EC 2.1.1.- · superseded EC numbering; the atlas uses the current class (2.1.1.34)

The legacy Mycobrowser record is shown for verification. Mycobrowser is no longer maintained; its EC numbers predate recent nomenclature revisions, so a class change usually reflects re-numbering, not a conflict.

Orthologues (reciprocal best hits across mycobacteria)

M. bovis Mb0387c · 99.5% identity
M. leprae ML2485c · 89.0% identity
M. marinum MMAR_0651 · 90.1% identity
M. smegmatis MSMEG_0739 · 84.1% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_000397 · 100.0% identity
M. abscessus MAB_4258c · 80.8% identity

Reciprocal-best-hit orthologues (DIAMOND) against the Mycobrowser reference proteomes. A missing species is informative: e.g. a gene absent from M. leprae was likely lost in its reductive genome evolution. Locus tags link to Mycobrowser.

Curated reference (UniProt)

UniProt O53715 TrEMBL · unreviewed · Evidence at protein level
UniProt namePossible RNA methyltransferase

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category J Translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis
Preferred nametrmH
eggNOG descriptiontRNA rRNA methyltransferase, SpoU
Orthologous groupCOG0566
EC number EC 2.1.1.34
KEGG orthology K00556

Orthology-based transfer (eggNOG 5.0.2, diamond). EC/KO/GO/CAZy are computed annotations, not manual curation; cross-check against the primary literature before treating a specific reaction as established.

Conservation & selection (intra-MTBC, 145 209 strains)

pN/pS 0.926 · relaxed/neutral
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 3 synonymous, 8 missense, 0 nonsense, 0 frameshift

pN/pS from segregating SNPs (singletons removed) normalised by possible sites. Low pN/pS = purifying selection (a strong signal that a "hypothetical" is a real, constrained gene). A high pN/pS is ambiguous: relaxed constraint or positive selection (drug resistance, antigenic variation) inflate it; e.g. rpoB/katG/pncA score high here for resistance, not loss of function. A clonal disruption (one allele over a clade) suggests lineage pseudogenisation; a convergent one (many independent alleles) is typical of resistance loss-of-function.

Outgroup conservation (beyond the MTBC) Actinomycetia

M. canettii dN/dS (deep-divergence selection) 0.0 (low power) · 1 consensus substitution(s)
low power (1 canettii-consensus substitution(s)); present in M. canettii but dN/dS not reliable
Genus-wide presence (~53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium) present in 53/53 (100%) · mean identity 89.4% · 4/4 closest MTBAP relatives
conserved across the genus (present in 53/53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium genomes, incl. distant relatives) — an ancient core gene predating the genus radiation
Phylostratum (deepest detected homolog) MTBC-specific Mycobacterium Mycobacteriaceae Corynebacteriales Actinomycetia Bacteria
detected in 11/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Actinomycetia) · mean identity 66.9%
detected across the class Actinomycetia (beyond Corynebacteriales) but not outside the phylum — an Actinobacteria-level ancient gene

Two orthogonal outgroup signals. M. canettii (the immediate outgroup) gives a deep-divergence dN/dS (a low value confirms a constrained, real gene; shown as confident only at ≥8 substitutions, else flagged low-power). Genus-wide presence/absence (tblastn vs assembled non-MTBC genomes) places the gene on the ancient-core ↔ MTBC-specific axis: a gene absent even from the closest MTBAP relatives is a candidate MTBC-specific innovation (possible host-adaptation factor, to confirm by synteny). The phylostratum extends that axis outside the genus (tblastn vs 13 reference genomes spanning Mycobacteriaceae → Corynebacteriales → Actinomycetia → outside the phylum): it is the deepest clade in which a homolog is still detected, i.e. a proxy for gene age. Read it with the null model in mind: a shallow (young) stratum can also reflect homology-detection failure for short or fast-evolving ORFs, so it is a descriptive axis, not a proof of novelty.

Essentiality (transposon mutagenesis)

DeJesus 2017 callNE · non-essential
What the call meansnon-essential
TA sites (Himar1) 11 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 11 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 1.000, mean read count 33.7272727273. A region of the protein devoid of TA sites is invisible to this assay: nothing can be inferred about it, in either direction.

Genome-wide Himar1 transposon essentiality in H37Rv (DeJesus 2017). An essential call (ES/ESD/GD) is strong, independent evidence that a "hypothetical" locus encodes a functional, selectively required gene — orthogonal to intra-species conservation.

Mutant phenotypes (conditional Tn-seq, MtbTnDB) in-vivo phenotype

Conditionlog2FCqEffect
fitness in mouse infection, day 10 (in vivo) -5.110.024 required
fitness after prolonged in vitro passage (in vitro passage) -3.910.0 required

Conditional fitness of transposon-disruption mutants across 2 significant condition(s) (|log2FC|≥1, q≤0.05), from the standardized MtbTnDB compendium. A negative log2FC means the mutant is depleted — the gene contributes to fitness in that condition. An in-vivo defect for a "hypothetical" is strong evidence it matters for infection, even without a known molecular function. Disruption (Tn insertion), not a clean deletion; genetic-interaction screens excluded.

Proteomics (mass spectrometry) detected

MS detectiondetected in 10 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance10.0 ppm · rank 2683/3519 (23.8th percentile)

Detection by mass spectrometry is direct, experimental evidence that the protein product exists — orthogonal to sequence conservation and to Tn-seq essentiality, and especially decisive for a "hypothetical" locus. Reproducible detection across several independent datasets (PaxDb) makes the existence claim robust; the integrated abundance places the protein in the proteome's dynamic range.

Physico-chemical properties (computed, ProtParam)

Length183 aa
Molecular weight19.9 kDa
Theoretical pI8.84
GRAVY-0.076 (hydrophilic)
Aliphatic index92.3
Aromaticity0.066
Instability index38.6 (stable)

Computed from the ancestral MTBC0 sequence with the ExPASy ProtParam method (Biopython). Descriptive biophysical context: a positive GRAVY flags a hydrophobic (often membrane) protein, a high instability index (>40) predicts a short in-vitro half-life, an extreme pI hints at compartment or binding partner.

Domains (Pfam, hmmscan --cut_ga)

PfamAccessioni-EvalueResiduesDescription
SpoU_methylasePF00588.25 6.6e-2534–170 SpoU rRNA Methylase family

Structural search (AlphaFold DB model, Foldseek vs PDB — genome-wide) pLDDT 91.9

PDB hitprobTM-scoreE-valueDescription
1v2x-assembly1_A-2 1.00 0.85 3.6e-11 sig 1v2x-assembly1_A-2 TrmH
1gz0-assembly4_E 1.00 0.81 7.9e-11 sig 1gz0-assembly4_E 23S RIBOSOMAL RNA G2251 2'O-METHYLTRANSFERASE RLMB
7edc-assembly1_A-2 1.00 0.78 5.5e-11 sig 7edc-assembly1_A-2 Crystal structure of mutant tRNA [Gm18] methyltransferase TrmH (E107G) in complex with S-adenosyl-L-methionine from Escherichia coli
2ha8-assembly1_B 1.00 0.82 3.2e-10 sig 2ha8-assembly1_B Methyltransferase Domain of Human TAR (HIV-1) RNA binding protein 1
1zjr-assembly1_A 1.00 0.85 3.8e-10 sig 1zjr-assembly1_A Crystal Structure of A. aeolicus TrmH/SpoU tRNA modifying enzyme

Foldseek search of the AlphaFold DB model (mean pLDDT 91.9, gated at 70) against the PDB — a genome-wide extension of the ESMFold dark-gene search that also covers proteins beyond the single-sequence length limit. Confident structural neighbours (E < 0.01) shown.

Genomic context (neighbours & predicted operon)

Upstream (5' on genome)secE2 (+ strand, 75 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)Rv0381c (- strand, 95 bp gap)

Neighbours from the H37Rv annotation (- strand). The operon is predicted by co-directional intergenic distance (same strand, gaps ≤50 bp) — a transcription-unit hypothesis, not a mapped TSS. For a "hypothetical", co-transcription with a characterised operon is a concrete functional lead (complements the STRING neighborhood channel below).

Transcriptional regulation (signed TRN: ChIP-seq + TFOE)

Regulated by (1 TF) csoR (represses)

Regulatory edges from the ISB signed transcriptional regulatory network (TF ChIP-seq binding, Minch 2015 + TF-overexpression response, Rustad 2014). An edge is regulatory evidence (binding and/or expression change), not necessarily direct. For a "hypothetical", membership in a known regulon (e.g. DosR dormancy, PhoP virulence) is a strong physiological-context lead.

Functional interaction network (STRING v12, guilt-by-association)

Explore full network →

Node colour = verdict, dashed = hypothetical; edge colour = evidence (green experimental, orange genomic-context, grey co-expression), width ∝ score. Click a partner to open its page; "Explore full network" to walk the graph.

Closest characterised functional partner: pyrE (orotate phosphoribosyltransferase), high confidence from genomic context alone (score 776 excluding text-mining).

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv0381c hyp hypothetical protein 775 776 ctx neighborhood:776
Rv0382c pyrE orotate phosphoribosyltransferase 775 776 ctx neighborhood:765
Rv2420c rsfS hyp exp hypothetical protein 780 771 experimental:763
Rv3456c rplQ exp 50S ribosomal protein L17 764 761 experimental:739
Rv2442c rplU exp 50S ribosomal protein L21 747 747 experimental:739
Rv0723 rplO exp 50S ribosomal protein L15 743 743 experimental:732
Rv0383c ttfA hyp hypothetical protein 718 719 ctx neighborhood:706
Rv0640 rplK exp 50S ribosomal protein L11 706 706 experimental:696
Rv3443c rplM exp 50S ribosomal protein L13 715 702 experimental:687
Rv0715 rplX exp 50S ribosomal protein L24 695 695 experimental:676
Rv0701 rplC exp 50S ribosomal protein L3 690 675 experimental:664
Rv0384c clpB chaperone protein ClpB 665 663 ctx neighborhood:652
Rv1650 pheT phenylalanine--tRNA ligase subunit beta 675 646 ctx neighborhood:456
Rv1023 eno exp enolase 589 590 database:546
Rv3580c cysS1 cysteine--tRNA ligase 585 560 coexpression:414

STRING combines evidence channels (neighborhood, fusion, cooccurrence, coexpression, experimental, database, text-mining) into a 0–1000 score. The ctx badge marks edges carried by the genomic-context channels (conserved neighborhood, fusion, phylogenetic co-occurrence), which are independent of orthology and structure and the strongest signal for an unknown gene. The exp badge marks an experimentally-supported partner (measured interaction, experimental/database channel ≥400) as opposed to a purely predicted one — but note that the M. tuberculosis experimental interactome is dominated by a noisy bacterial-two-hybrid screen, so a strong measured link that contradicts the operon/localisation context is likely a false positive. The no text-mining column recomputes the score from data alone, so a link that does not depend on the literature is visible. Association is a function hypothesis, not proof: corroborate with the operon context and the primary literature before assigning a function.

Evidence

  • Annotation from H37Rv (no MTBC0 1:1 anchor; H37Rv protein used): RNA methyltransferase
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): SpoU_methylase PF00588.25 (E=7e-25)
  • (auto-curated by rules from PGAP + Pfam + Foldseek; not hand-reviewed)

Sources

  • Ancestral sequence & coordinates: Harrison LB et al. (2024), An imputed ancestral reference genome for the MTBC, doi:10.1101/2023.09.07.556366
  • Product annotation: NCBI PGAP on MTBC0; legacy from H37Rv NC_000962.3 (RefSeq NP_214894.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — SpoU_methylase (PF00588.25)
  • Sequence-level signal: ESM Atlas (EvolutionaryScale × BioHub) — exploratory
  • Controlled vocabulary: eggNOG-mapper 2.1.12 (Cantalapiedra et al. 2021, doi:10.1093/molbev/msab293), eggNOG 5.0 DB (Huerta-Cepas et al. 2019) — OG COG0566
  • Curated reference: UniProt O53715 (TrEMBL, unreviewed; Evidence at protein level)
  • Intra-MTBC selection: pN/pS and disruption from SPDI variants of 145 209 MTBC strains (this work, local collection vs H37Rv NC_000962.3)
  • Genome-wide structure: AlphaFold DB model (Jumper et al. 2021, doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2; Varadi et al. 2024, doi:10.1093/nar/gkad1011) searched vs PDB with Foldseek (mean pLDDT 91.9)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 73 functional partner(s); context anchor pyrE
  • Essentiality: genome-wide transposon mutagenesis in H37Rv — DeJesus et al. 2017 (mBio, doi:10.1128/mBio.02133-16, CC BY)
  • Proteomics: integrated mass-spectrometry abundance from PaxDb 5.0 (Huang et al. 2023, doi:10.1016/j.mcpro.2023.100640), taxon 83332 — weighted average of 16 datasets, incl. Schubert et al. 2013 (doi:10.1016/j.chom.2013.04.008) and Albrethsen et al. 2013 (doi:10.1074/mcp.M112.018846)
  • Functional category: TubercuList scheme (Cole et al. 1998, doi:10.1038/31159), via Mycobrowser (Kapopoulou et al. 2011, doi:10.1016/j.tube.2010.09.006)
  • Orthologues: reciprocal best hits (DIAMOND, Buchfink et al. 2021, doi:10.1038/s41592-021-01101-x) against Mycobrowser release 5 reference proteomes
  • Genomic context / operon: H37Rv annotation; operon predicted by co-directional intergenic distance (Salgado et al. 2000, doi:10.1073/pnas.030539397)
  • Transcriptional regulation: ISB signed TRN — TF ChIP-seq (Minch et al. 2015, doi:10.1038/ncomms6829) + TF overexpression (Rustad et al. 2014, doi:10.1186/gb-2014-15-11-502)
  • Mutant phenotypes: standardized Tn-seq compendium MtbTnDB (Jinich et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/mmi.15370), aggregating many primary Tn-seq studies across conditions
  • Physico-chemical properties: ExPASy ProtParam method via Biopython (Gasteiger et al. 2005), computed from the MTBC0 sequence
  • Primary literature: none located yet; annotation rests on the domain/homology sources above.

Ancestral MTBC0 protein sequence

>H37Rv|Rv0380c|
MLLRDGDARNVVDAYRYWTREAIIADIDTRRHPLHVAIENFGHDANIGSVVRTANAFAVHTVHIVGRRRWNRRGAMVTDRYQRLCHHDSTTGLLEFAAGAGLTVVAVDNVPGAARLEQTALPRECLLLFGQEGPGITDDARAGAAVTVSIAQFGSTRSINAGVAAGIAMHAWIRQHADLGRAW