Rv0496 Family assigned · medium auto-curated

H37Rv Rv0496 · MTBC0 - · 328 aa · 586394–587380 H37Rv (+) · RefSeq NP_215010.3

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Annotation: from legacy to revised

Legacy (H37Rv / Mycobrowser)hypothetical protein
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotation
Revised (this work)Contains Ppx-GppA (PF02541.23) domain(s); putative function inferred from the domain architecture.
Functional category (TubercuList)conserved hypotheticals

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) 3 publications

Found under: H37Rv (3).

3 TB publications mention this gene. 3 publication(s) mention this gene (title/abstract), verified against the text. The atlas states the function; these are the primary sources that discuss it.

PublicationDate
Establishing Virulence Associated Polyphosphate Kinase 2 as a drug target for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. doi:10.1038/srep26900 2016
The two PPX-GppA homologues from Mycobacterium tuberculosis have distinct biochemical activities. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042561 2012
Peripheral blood and pleural fluid mononuclear cell responses to low-molecular-mass secretory polypeptides of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human models of immunity to tuberculosis. doi:10.1128/IAI.73.6.3547-3558.2005 2005

This layer CITES the literature, it does not change the verdict or the function. A gene may be heavily studied (as an antigen, a resistance determinant, a drug target) while its molecular function is settled elsewhere in the fiche. This distinguishes a gene that is dark because nobody has looked from one that is dark despite having been studied. Source: PubMed (whole), MULTI-ALIAS sweep: H37Rv locus tag AND every ortholog identifier (M. bovis Mb…, M. marinum MMAR_…, M. smegmatis MSMEG_…, M. leprae ML…, M. abscessus MAB_…), each hit VERIFIED against the abstract text (word-boundary regex). phase73/phase75, 2026-07-13.

Intrinsic disorder (sequence + structure) partially disordered

Predicted disorder17% of residues (metapredict) · mean AlphaFold pLDDT 90.0
Disordered regions2 IDR(s), longest 34 aa [0-22, 294-328]

carries a substantial disordered region (56/328 residues); disorder is a property, not a function

A property (biophysics), not a function. No LLPS/condensate claim is made from disorder alone. Verdict unchanged. Source: metapredict v3 (Emenecker/Holehouse) per-residue disorder + AlphaFold mean pLDDT (annotation_mtbc P16.13).

Genomic-neighbour overlap (structural caveat) co-directional · 0 % of gene

NeighbourRv0497 (Rv0497, + strand)
Overlap4 bp, 0 % of this gene's length

co-directional overlap: ordinary (e.g. shared stop/start codons in an operon), not the Rv2438A-type artefact P20.1, derived from GFF3 gene coordinates, 2026-08-03.

CRISPRi vulnerability

Vulnerability index 1.15 (95% CI -0.30 to 3.56). 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) ahead of Mycobrowser

Mycobrowser functionFunction unknown

Mycobrowser classes this locus among conserved hypotheticals; the atlas now assigns a functional handle (curated function (UniProt), EC number, COG category). Mycobrowser is no longer maintained, so its EC numbers predate recent nomenclature revisions (e.g. the 2018 EC 7 "translocase" class) — most EC differences are re-numberings of the same enzyme, not conflicts.

Orthologues (reciprocal best hits across mycobacteria)

M. bovis Mb0507 · 99.7% identity
M. leprae ML2434c · 85.9% identity
M. marinum MMAR_0822 · 87.2% identity
M. smegmatis MSMEG_0939 · 85.1% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_000521 · 100.0% identity
M. abscessus MAB_4013c · 82.3% 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 P9WHV5 SwissProt · reviewed · Evidence at protein level
UniProt nameExopolyphosphatase 1
EC (curated) EC 3.6.1.11
Curated functionDegradation of inorganic polyphosphates (polyP). Releases orthophosphate processively from the ends of the polyP chain. Prefers short-chain length polyphosphates as substrates. Can also hydrolyze ATP and ADP substrates, but lacks GTPase activity. Cannot hydrolyze pppGpp to ppGpp.

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category F Nucleotide transport and metabolism
P Inorganic ion transport and metabolism
Preferred nameppx1
eggNOG descriptionPpx GppA phosphatase
Orthologous groupCOG0248
EC number EC 3.6.1.11, EC 3.6.1.40
KEGG orthology K01524
KEGG pathways map00230
Gene Ontology (11) GO:0003674, GO:0003824, GO:0006793, GO:0008150, GO:0008152, GO:0009987, GO:0016462, GO:0016787, GO:0016817, GO:0016818, GO:0044237

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 0.556 · relaxed/neutral
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 2 synonymous, 3 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) · 2 consensus substitution(s)
low power (2 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 87.1% · 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 9/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Actinomycetia) · mean identity 66.6%
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) 8 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 8 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 1.000, mean read count 99. A region of the protein devoid of TA sites is invisible to this assay: nothing can be inferred about it, in either direction.
CaveatRead with some caution: only 8 TA (Himar1) sites in the whole ORF (atlas median 13). The DeJesus 2017 call rests on fewer independent observations than for a longer gene. If this gene overlaps a neighbour (see Genomic-neighbour overlap section below), some of these 8 sites may fall inside the neighbour's ORF rather than its own, leaving even fewer truly informative sites than the raw count suggests. (P20.3)

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.

Proteomics (mass spectrometry) detected

MS detectiondetected in 12 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance59.5 ppm · rank 1642/3519 (53.4th 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)

Length328 aa
Molecular weight34.9 kDa
Theoretical pI6.07
GRAVY-0.164 (hydrophilic)
Aliphatic index92.0
Aromaticity0.034
Instability index46.3 (unstable)

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
Ppx-GppAPF02541.23 5.4e-952–291 Ppx/GppA phosphatase family

Structural search (AlphaFold DB model, Foldseek vs PDB — genome-wide) pLDDT 90.0

PDB hitprobTM-scoreE-valueDescription
8jgu-assembly1_A 1.00 0.87 2.4e-26 sig 8jgu-assembly1_A Crystal structure of N-terminal domain of exopolyphosphatase from Deinococcus radiodurans
3mdq-assembly1_A 1.00 0.89 1.9e-25 sig 3mdq-assembly1_A Crystal structure of an Exopolyphosphatase (CHU_0316) from Cytophaga hutchinsonii ATCC 33406 at 1.50 A resolution
1t6c-assembly1_A 1.00 0.83 3.1e-26 sig 1t6c-assembly1_A Structural characterization of the Ppx/GppA protein family: crystal structure of the Aquifex aeolicus family member
1t6d-assembly2_B 1.00 0.77 1.2e-26 sig 1t6d-assembly2_B MIRAS phasing of the Aquifex aeolicus Ppx/GppA phosphatase: crystal structure of the type II variant
2j4r-assembly2_B 1.00 0.83 4.9e-25 sig 2j4r-assembly2_B Structural Study of the Aquifex aeolicus PPX-GPPA enzyme

Foldseek search of the AlphaFold DB model (mean pLDDT 90.0, 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) operon of 5

Upstream (5' on genome)Rv0495c (- strand, 79 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)Rv0497 (+ strand, -4 bp gap)
Predicted operon Rv0496 · Rv0497 · Rv0498 · Rv0499 · proC

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).

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: Rv0497 (transmembrane protein), high confidence from genomic context alone (score 887 excluding text-mining). This association is the citable seed of a function hypothesis for this hypothetical protein.

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv1026 ppx2 hyp exp hypothetical protein 963 928 database:900 textmining:514
Rv2583c relA exp bifunctional (p)ppGpp synthase/hydrolase RelA 939 912 database:900
Rv0497 transmembrane protein 887 887 ctx neighborhood:881
Rv0498 hyp hypothetical protein 864 864 ctx neighborhood:863
Rv0499 hyp hypothetical protein 847 847 ctx neighborhood:846
Rv0500 proC pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 816 816 ctx neighborhood:815
Rv2984 ppk1 polyphosphate kinase 968 814 ctx cooccurence:432 coexpression:643 textmining:839
Rv0500A DNA-binding protein 717 717 ctx neighborhood:715
Rv0495c hyp hypothetical protein 643 643 ctx neighborhood:639
Rv1629 polA DNA polymerase I 479 480 coexpression:410
Rv0500B Rv0500B, len: 33 aa. Conserved hypothetical protein. Basic protein 18 of the 33 aa are Arg or Lys, with strong similarity to AL079345|SCE68_ 430 430 ctx neighborhood:422
Rv0502 hyp hypothetical protein 417 416
Rv3232c ppk2 polyphosphate kinase 929 414 textmining:885
Rv2603c transcriptional regulator 878 104 textmining:870
Rv3301c phoY1 phosphate transport system transcriptional regulator PhoY 659 82 textmining:645

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): hypothetical protein
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): Ppx-GppA PF02541.23 (E=5e-95)
  • (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_215010.3)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — Ppx-GppA (PF02541.23)
  • 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 COG0248
  • Curated reference: UniProt P9WHV5 (SwissProt, reviewed; 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 90.0)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 23 functional partner(s); context anchor Rv0497
  • 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)
  • 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|Rv0496|
MVDAHRGGHPTPMSSTKATLRLAEATDSSGKITKRGADKLISTIDEFAKIAISSGCAELMAFATSAVRDAENSEDVLSRVRKETGVELQALRGEDESRLTFLAVRRWYGWSAGRILNLDIGGGSLEVSSGVDEEPEIALSLPLGAGRLTREWLPDDPPGRRRVAMLRDWLDAELAEPSVTVLEAGSPDLAVATSKTFRSLARLTGAAPSMAGPRVKRTLTANGLRQLIAFISRMTAVDRAELEGVSADRAPQIVAGALVAEASMRALSIEAVEICPWALREGLILRKLDSEADGTALIESSSVHTSVRAVGGQPADRNAANRSRGSKP