Rv1771 Resolved · high auto-curated

H37Rv Rv1771 · MTBC0 mtbc0_001885 · 428 aa · 2023172–2024458 MTBC0 (+) · RefSeq NP_216287.1

Genomic neighbourhood (genome browser)

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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)L-gulono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotationL-gulono-1%2C4-lactone dehydrogenase
Revised (this work)L-gulono-1%2C4-lactone dehydrogenase. Pfam: FAD_binding_4 (PF01565.29), ALO (PF04030.20).
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.

In the literature (TB corpus sweep) 2 publications

2 TB publications mention this gene. 2 publication(s) discuss this gene (2 in a M. tuberculosis context).

PublicationDate
HspX vaccination and role in virulence in the guinea pig model of tuberculosis. doi:10.1111/2049-632X.12147 2014
Mycobacterium tuberculosis possesses a functional enzyme for the synthesis of vitamin C, L-gulono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase. doi:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2006.05443.x 2006

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.

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

NeighbourRv1770 (Rv1770, + 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 1.10 (95% CI -1.14 to 4.99). 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 involved in biosynthesis of L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Oxidizes L-gulono-1,4-lactone.
Mycobrowser EC 1.-.-.- · superseded EC numbering; the atlas uses the current class (1.1.2.-, 1.1.3.8)

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 Mb1800 · 100.0% identity
M. marinum MMAR_2648 · 75.5% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_001846 · 99.8% identity
M. abscessus MAB_0105c · 43.3% 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 P9WIT3 SwissProt · reviewed · Evidence at protein level
UniProt nameL-gulono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase
EC (curated) EC 1.1.2.-
Curated functionOxidizes L-gulono-1,4-lactone to L-xylo-hexulonolactone which spontaneously isomerizes to L-ascorbate. Can use both cytochrome c and phenazine methosulfate as exogenous electron acceptors, but molecular oxygen does not serve as a substrate. Is very specific for the L-gulono-1,4-lactone substrate, since it cannot oxidize L-galactono-1,4-lactone, D-glucurono-3,6-lactone, D-glucuronate, D-arabinose, or D-xylose.

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category C Energy production and conversion
eggNOG descriptionD-arabinono-1,4-lactone oxidase
Orthologous groupCOG0277
EC number EC 1.1.3.8
KEGG orthology K00103
KEGG pathways map00053, map01100
KEGG modules M00129
Gene Ontology (45) GO:0003674, GO:0003824, GO:0005575, GO:0005618, GO:0005623, GO:0005886, GO:0005975, GO:0005996, GO:0006082, GO:0006732, GO:0006766, GO:0006767 +33 more

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 0.529 · relaxed/neutral
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 5 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) 0.166 (low power) · 3 consensus substitution(s)
low power (3 canettii-consensus substitution(s)); present in M. canettii but dN/dS not reliable
Genus-wide presence (~53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium) present in 20/53 (38%) · mean identity 75.4% · 4/4 closest MTBAP relatives
present in a subset of the genus (20/53 NTM; in 4 of the 4 closest MTBAP relatives) — partial/intermediate conservation
Phylostratum (deepest detected homolog) MTBC-specific Mycobacterium Mycobacteriaceae Corynebacteriales Actinomycetia Bacteria
detected in 6/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Actinomycetia) · mean identity 43.3%
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) 26 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 26 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 1.000, mean read count 94.7692307692. 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 15 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance542.0 ppm · rank 380/3519 (89.2th 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)

Length428 aa
Molecular weight48.0 kDa
Theoretical pI7.14
GRAVY-0.373 (hydrophilic)
Aliphatic index78.4
Aromaticity0.084
Instability index40.9 (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
FAD_binding_4PF01565.29 3.7e-3216–150 FAD binding domain
ALOPF04030.20 1.0e-93172–425 D-arabinono-1,4-lactone oxidase

Structural search (AlphaFold DB model, Foldseek vs PDB — genome-wide) pLDDT 95.5

PDB hitprobTM-scoreE-valueDescription
8qnc-assembly1_A 1.00 0.88 1.6e-38 sig 8qnc-assembly1_A Crystal structure of ancestral L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase: A113G variant
8qmy-assembly2_B 1.00 0.87 4.7e-38 sig 8qmy-assembly2_B Crystal structure of ancestral L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase
8qmy-assembly1_A 1.00 0.87 7.0e-38 sig 8qmy-assembly1_A Crystal structure of ancestral L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase
8qnb-assembly1_A 1.00 0.87 4.4e-38 sig 8qnb-assembly1_A Crystal structure of ancestral L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase: in complex with L-galactono-1,4-lactone
8qmy-assembly3_C 1.00 0.88 3.8e-37 sig 8qmy-assembly3_C Crystal structure of ancestral L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase

Foldseek search of the AlphaFold DB model (mean pLDDT 95.5, 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 3

Upstream (5' on genome)Rv1770 (+ strand, -4 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)Rv1772 (+ strand, 188 bp gap)
Predicted operon Rv1769 · Rv1770 · Rv1771

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: Rv1050 (oxidoreductase), medium confidence from genomic context alone (score 503 excluding text-mining).

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv1769 hyp hypothetical protein 973 973 ctx neighborhood:881 cooccurence:769
Rv1770 hyp hypothetical protein 887 888 ctx neighborhood:881
Rv2482c plsB2 exp glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 628 612 database:549
Rv1551 plsB1 exp acyltransferase PlsB 619 602 database:549
Rv3806c ubiA exp decaprenyl-phosphate phosphoribosyltransferase 588 568 database:552
Rv1310 atpD exp ATP synthase subunit beta 582 567 database:538
Rv1305 atpE exp ATP synthase subunit C 541 542 database:526
Rv3633 hyp exp hypothetical protein 549 533 database:463
Rv1501 hyp exp hypothetical protein 548 532 database:463
Rv0694 mftD mycofactocin system heme/flavin oxidoreductase MftD 541 521
Rv1872c lldD2 L-lactate dehydrogenase 537 517
Rv3029c fixA electron transfer flavoprotein subunit beta 526 503
Rv1050 oxidoreductase 502 503 ctx fusion:485
Rv3028c fixB electron transfer flavoprotein subunit alpha 522 499
Rv1768 PE_PGRS31 PE-PGRS family protein PE_PGRS31 779 490 ctx neighborhood:473 textmining:585

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: L-gulono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase
  • MTBC0 PGAP product: L-gulono-1%2C4-lactone dehydrogenase
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): FAD_binding_4 PF01565.29 (E=4e-32), ALO PF04030.20 (E=1e-93)
  • (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_216287.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — FAD_binding_4 (PF01565.29), ALO (PF04030.20)
  • 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 COG0277
  • Curated reference: UniProt P9WIT3 (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 95.5)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 43 functional partner(s); context anchor Rv1050
  • 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_001885|Rv1771|
MSPIWSNWPGEQVCAPSAIVRPTSEAELADVIAQAAKRGERVRAVGSGHSFTDIACTDGVMIDMTGLQRVLDVDQPTGLVTVEGGAKLRALGPQLAQRRLGLENQGDVDPQSITGATATATHGTGVRFQNLSARIVSLRLVTAGGEVLSLSEGDDYLAARVSLGALGVISQVTLQTVPLFTLHRHDQRRSLAQTLERLDEFVDGNDHFEFFVFPYADKALTRTMHRSDEQPKPTPGWQRMVGENFENGGLSLICQTGRRFPSVAPRLNRLMTNMMSSSTVQDRAYKVFATQRKVRFTEMEYAIPRENGREALQRVIDLVRRRSLPIMFPIEVRFSAPDDSFLSTAYGRDTCYIAVHQYAGMEFESYFRAVEEIMDDYAGRPHWGKRHYQTAATLRERYPQWDRFAAVRDRLDPDRVFLNDYTRRVLGP