Rv0976c Family assigned · medium auto-curated

H37Rv Rv0976c · MTBC0 mtbc0_001042 · 560 aa · 1095708–1097390 MTBC0 (-) · RefSeq NP_215491.1

Genomic neighbourhood (genome browser)

Open in full genome browser →

This gene (outlined) in its genomic context; arrows are neighbouring genes coloured by verdict. Click any gene to navigate. Pan and zoom in the full browser.

Annotation: from legacy to revised

Legacy (H37Rv / Mycobrowser)hypothetical protein
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotationacyclic terpene utilization AtuA family protein
Revised (this work)Acyclic terpene utilization AtuA family protein. Pfam: AtuA (PF07287.18), AtuA_ferredoxin (PF23544.2).
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.

In the literature (TB corpus sweep) 1 publication

Found under: H37Rv (1).

1 TB publication mentions this gene. 1 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
Protective Efficacy of Subunit Vaccine Expressing Rv0976c Against Tuberculosis. doi:10.3390/vaccines13080872 2025

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.

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

NeighbourfadE13 (Rv0975c, - 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.

Conditional expression context (iModulons)

Member of 1 independently-modulated gene set(s): FasR (fasR).

iModulon membership (independently-modulated gene sets from a 647-sample RNA-seq compendium): the conditional co-expression context. Co-expression is a regulatory context, NOT a molecular function. Source: iModulonDB / modulome_mtb (Yoo 2022).

CRISPRi vulnerability

Vulnerability index 1.24 (95% CI -0.27 to 3.92). 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 (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 Mb1001c · 99.8% identity
M. marinum MMAR_4531 · 87.7% identity
M. smegmatis MSMEG_5490 · 79.8% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_001029 · 99.8% identity
M. abscessus MAB_1074c · 77.2% 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 O86320 TrEMBL · unreviewed · Predicted
UniProt nameExopolyphosphatase

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category E Amino acid transport and metabolism
eggNOG descriptionAcyclic terpene utilisation family protein AtuA
Orthologous groupCOG3185

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 0.98 · relaxed/neutral
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 3 synonymous, 8 missense, 0 nonsense, 2 frameshift
Disruption 2 distinct premature-stop/frameshift site(s); most common in 0.26% of strains (373) · clonal

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) 0.552 (low power) · 5 consensus substitution(s)
low power (5 canettii-consensus substitution(s)); present in M. canettii but dN/dS not reliable
Genus-wide presence (~53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium) present in 51/53 (96%) · mean identity 86.4% · 4/4 closest MTBAP relatives
conserved across the genus (present in 51/53 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 6/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Actinomycetia) · mean identity 70.3%
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) 20 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 20 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 0.950, mean read count 75.2631578947. 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.

Proteomics (mass spectrometry) detected

MS detectiondetected in 6 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance5.81 ppm · rank 2888/3519 (18.0th 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)

Length560 aa
Molecular weight59.1 kDa
Theoretical pI5.29
GRAVY0.02 (hydrophobic)
Aliphatic index94.8
Aromaticity0.062
Instability index26.2 (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
AtuAPF07287.18 2.8e-1551–415 Acyclic terpene utilisation family protein AtuA
AtuA_ferredoxinPF23544.2 2.7e-16456–553 AtuA ferredoxin-like domain

Genomic context (neighbours & predicted operon) operon of 6

Upstream (5' on genome)fadE13 (- strand, -4 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)PE_PGRS16 (+ strand, 197 bp gap)
Predicted operon echA7 · fadE12 · accA2 · accD2 · fadE13 · Rv0976c

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: accD2 (acetyl-/propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit beta), high confidence from genomic context alone (score 992 excluding text-mining). This association is the citable seed of a function hypothesis for this hypothetical protein.

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv0974c accD2 acetyl-/propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit beta 992 992 ctx neighborhood:881 coexpression:907
Rv0975c fadE13 acyl-CoA dehydrogenase FadE13 986 986 ctx neighborhood:881 coexpression:859
Rv0973c accA2 acetyl/propionyl-CoA carboxylase subuit alpha 984 983 ctx neighborhood:881 coexpression:832
Rv0972c fadE12 acyl-CoA dehydrogenase fadE12 961 960 ctx neighborhood:881 cooccurence:487
Rv0971c echA7 enoyl-CoA hydratase EchA7 912 908 ctx neighborhood:881
Rv0036c hyp hypothetical protein 700 701 ctx cooccurence:628
Rv0981 mprA two-component response regulator MrpA 548 548 ctx neighborhood:544
Rv0979A rpmF 50S ribosomal protein L32 544 544 ctx neighborhood:544
Rv2502c accD1 acetyl-/propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit beta 544 516 coexpression:454
Rv0977 PE_PGRS16 PE-PGRS family protein PE_PGRS16 502 502 ctx neighborhood:502
Rv2247 accD6 acetyl-/propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit beta 506 476 coexpression:446
Rv3280 accD5 propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit beta 506 476 coexpression:446
Rv3799c accD4 propionyl-CoA carboxylase subunit beta AccD 506 476 coexpression:446
Rv0939 bifunctional 2-hydroxyhepta-2,4-diene-1,7-dioate isomerase/cyclase/dehydrase 593 454
Rv2912c TetR family HTH-type transcriptional regulator 455 446

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

  • Legacy H37Rv annotation: hypothetical protein
  • MTBC0 PGAP product: acyclic terpene utilization AtuA family protein
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): AtuA PF07287.18 (E=3e-155), AtuA_ferredoxin PF23544.2 (E=3e-16)
  • (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_215491.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — AtuA (PF07287.18), AtuA_ferredoxin (PF23544.2)
  • 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 COG3185
  • Curated reference: UniProt O86320 (TrEMBL, unreviewed; Predicted)
  • 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 96.4)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 34 functional partner(s); context anchor accD2
  • 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

>mtbc0_001042|Rv0976c|
MRIGNCSGFYGDRLSAMREMLTGGELDYLTGDYLAELTMLILGRDRMKNPDRGYAKTFLAQLEDCLGLAHDRGVRIVTNAGGLNPAGLANAVRALAARLGIPAQVAHVEGDDLQPRAAELGLGTPLTANAYLGAWGIVDCFERGADVVVTGRVTDASVVVGAAAAHFGWGRTDYHRLAGAVVAGHVIECGVQATGGNYAFFTEIGDLTHAGFPLAEIAADGSSVITKHHGTGGLVSVDTITAQLLYEITGARYANPDVTARMDSVELSPDGPDRVRISGVIGEPPPPTYKVSLNSIGGFRNAMTFVLTGLDIDAKADLVRRQLEAALTVKPAELQWTLARTDHPDADTEETASALLTCVARDPDPANVGRQFSSAAVELALASYPGFTATAPPGDGQVYGVFTPGYVDAGKVAHIAVHADGTRTEIPCATETLELAPAHPPALPDPLPAGPTRRVPLGLIAGARSGDKGGSANVGVWVRTDEQWRWLAHTLTVELLKELLPETAGLVVTRHVLPNLRALNFVIEAILGQGVAYQARFDPQAKGLGEWLRSRHVEIPETLL