Rv2257c Family assigned · medium auto-curated

H37Rv Rv2257c · MTBC0 mtbc0_002400 · 272 aa · 2556164–2556982 MTBC0 (-) · RefSeq NP_216773.1

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Annotation: from legacy to revised

Legacy (H37Rv / Mycobrowser)hypothetical protein
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotationserine hydrolase domain-containing protein
Revised (this work)Serine hydrolase domain-containing protein. Pfam: Beta-lactamase (PF00144.30).
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
Comprehensive Identification of β-Lactam Antibiotic Polypharmacology in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. doi:10.1021/acsinfecdis.5c00233 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.

Phenotype-driven functional lead (hypothesis) priority 3.0

disruption advantageous in vivo (growth-restraining in the host).

Corroborating evidenceconserved / under constraint intra-MTBC; STRING-coupled to Rv2258c (transcriptional regulator); structural lead available

This locus is a "hypothetical" with a conditional Tn-seq phenotype. The statement above is a working hypothesis for its functional context, synthesised from the phenotype pattern and the corroborating layers on this page (conservation, STRING coupling, operon, regulon, localisation, structure) — a prioritised requalification candidate to validate, not an established function.

CRISPRi vulnerability

Vulnerability index 0.18 (95% CI -2.29 to 3.46). 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 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 Mb2281c · 100.0% identity
M. leprae ML1782c · 76.4% identity
M. marinum MMAR_3348 · 79.0% identity
M. smegmatis MSMEG_4337 · 74.7% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_002334 · 100.0% identity
M. abscessus MAB_1870 · 66.4% 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 O53531 TrEMBL · unreviewed · Evidence at protein level
UniProt nameConserved protein

UniProt still lists this protein as Conserved protein; the revised annotation above is ahead of the current UniProt record.

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category V Defense mechanisms
Preferred namebla
eggNOG descriptionbeta-lactamase
Orthologous groupCOG1680

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 0.742 · relaxed/neutral
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 3 synonymous, 6 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) 0.372 (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 80.2% · 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 8/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Actinomycetia) · mean identity 58.4%
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) 10 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 10 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 1.000, mean read count 122.6. 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.

Enzyme activity (activity-based protein profiling) active serine hydrolase confirms atlas call

Directly labelled by a fluorophosphonate activity-based probe in live M. tuberculosis: biochemical proof that this protein is a catalytically active serine hydrolase, not merely a predicted fold. This experimentally corroborates the atlas assignment (Serine hydrolase domain-containing protein. Pfam: Beta-lactamase (PF00144.30).), which was derived independently from structure and orthology.

Source annotationRv2257c Conserved protein (conserved hypotheticals)
Probe enrichment20.0× over no-probe control (20 = capped maximum)
Covalent-inhibitor competition1.71× (probe labelling blocked by a serine-hydrolase inhibitor)

experimental (activity-based) confirmation of the atlas serine-hydrolase family assignment; proves the enzyme is catalytically active in live M. tuberculosis. It never changes the verdict here. Source: Li M, Patel HV, ..., Canaan S, Aldridge BB et al., Cell Chem Biol 2021 (PMC8964833; doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2021.09.002); competitive activity-based protein profiling of FP-reactive serine hydrolases.

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

Conditionlog2FCqEffect
fitness after prolonged in vitro passage (in vitro passage) -3.570.014 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) +3.030.0016 disruption advantageous

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 13 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance129.0 ppm · rank 1113/3519 (68.4th 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)

Length272 aa
Molecular weight28.4 kDa
Theoretical pI5.16
GRAVY0.136 (hydrophobic)
Aliphatic index86.5
Aromaticity0.081
Instability index32.5 (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
Beta-lactamasePF00144.30 1.7e-3313–254 Beta-lactamase

Structural search (AlphaFold DB model, Foldseek vs PDB — genome-wide) pLDDT 98.0

PDB hitprobTM-scoreE-valueDescription
3i7j-assembly2_B 1.00 1.00 5.0e-53 sig 3i7j-assembly2_B Crystal Structure of a beta-lactamase (Mb2281c) from Mycobacterium bovis, Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium Target MbR246
6kjr-assembly1_A 1.00 0.84 5.8e-16 sig 6kjr-assembly1_A Functional and structural insights into the unusual oxyanion hole-like geometry in macrolactin acyltransferase selective for dicarboxylic acyl donors
6kjt-assembly1_D 1.00 0.80 2.7e-16 sig 6kjt-assembly1_D Functional and structural insights into the unusual oxyanion hole-like geometry in macrolactin acyltransferase selective for dicarboxylic acyl donors
6kjq-assembly1_A 1.00 0.82 4.3e-15 sig 6kjq-assembly1_A Functional and structural insights into the unusual oxyanion hole-like geometry in macrolactin acyltransferase selective for dicarboxylic acyl donors
7u1c-assembly1_A 1.00 0.80 2.6e-15 sig 7u1c-assembly1_A Structure of EstG crystalized with SO4 and Tris

Foldseek search of the AlphaFold DB model (mean pLDDT 98.0, 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 2

Upstream (5' on genome)Rv2256c (- strand, 129 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)Rv2258c (- strand, 13 bp gap)
Predicted operon Rv2257c · Rv2258c

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: Rv2258c (transcriptional regulator), high confidence from genomic context alone (score 879 excluding text-mining). This association is the citable seed of a function hypothesis for this hypothetical protein.

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv2258c transcriptional regulator 878 879 ctx neighborhood:872
Rv1614 lgt prolipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase 793 794 coexpression:788
Rv2256c hyp hypothetical protein 759 760 ctx neighborhood:759
Rv2259 mscR S-nitrosomycothiol reductase MscR 702 703 ctx neighborhood:689
Rv2260 hyp hypothetical protein 704 695 ctx neighborhood:689
Rv0194 multidrug ABC transporter ATPase/permease 423 402
Rv2610c pimA alpha-(1-2)-phosphatidylinositol mannosyltransferase 421 302
Rv1209 hyp hypothetical protein 555 241 textmining:438
Rv2613c AP-4-A phosphorylase 812 86 textmining:803
Rv1301 threonylcarbamoyl-AMP synthase 459 85 textmining:434
Rv2681 hyp hypothetical protein 442 55 textmining:434

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: serine hydrolase domain-containing protein
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): Beta-lactamase PF00144.30 (E=2e-33)
  • (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_216773.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — Beta-lactamase (PF00144.30)
  • 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 COG1680
  • Curated reference: UniProt O53531 (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 98.0)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 11 functional partner(s); context anchor Rv2258c
  • 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)
  • 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

>mtbc0_002400|Rv2257c|
MTALEVLGGWPVPAAAAAVIGPAGVLATHGDTARVFALASVTKPLVARAAQVAVEEGVVNLDTPAGPPGSTVRHLLAHTSGLAMHSDQALARPGTRRMYSNYGFTVLAESVQRESGIEFGRYLTEAVCEPLGMVTTRLDGGPAAAGFGATSTVADLAVFAGDLLRPSTVSAQMHADATTVQFPGLDGVLPGYGVQRPNDWGLGFEIRNSKSPHWTGECNSTRTFGHFGQSGGFIWVDPKADLALVVLTARDFGDWALDLWPAISDAVLAEYT