cyp125 Resolved · high auto-curated

H37Rv Rv3545c · MTBC0 - · 433 aa · 3984144–3985445 H37Rv (-) · RefSeq NP_218062.1

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)steroid C26-monooxygenase
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotation
Revised (this work)Steroid C26-monooxygenase. Pfam: p450 (PF00067.28).
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) 30 publications

30 TB publications mention this gene. 30 publication(s) discuss this gene (25 in a M. tuberculosis context, 4 in other mycobacteria — M. marinum (2), M. smegmatis (1)).

Most recent 5 of 30.
PublicationDate
Structure-Function Analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Target Cytochrome P450 125 (CYP125) Enzyme Family. doi:10.3390/ijms26178531 2025
Fragment-Based Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors Targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis Cholesterol Metabolism. doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c00478 2025
Evolutionary insights into the selectivity of sterol oxidising cytochrome P450 enzymes based on ancestral sequence reconstruction. doi:10.1039/d5sc01863c 2025
Fragment-based development of small molecule inhibitors targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis cholesterol metabolism. doi:10.1101/2024.10.28.620643 2024
The oxidation of steroid derivatives by the CYP125A6 and CYP125A7 enzymes from Mycobacterium marinum. doi:10.1016/j.jsbmb.2023.106406 2023

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

NeighbourfadE28 (Rv3544c, - strand)
Overlap1 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): Rv0681 (Rv0681).

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 0.64 (95% CI -1.74 to 3.98). 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 functionCytochromes P450 are a group of heme-thiolate monooxygenases. They oxidize a variety of structurally unrelated compounds, including steroids, fatty acids, and xenobiotics.
Mycobrowser EC 1.14.-.- · superseded EC numbering; the atlas uses the current class (1.14.13.141, 1.14.15.29)

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 Mb3575c · 99.8% identity
M. marinum MMAR_5032 · 90.4% identity
M. smegmatis MSMEG_5995 · 75.5% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_003651 · 99.8% identity
M. abscessus MAB_0613 · 76.6% 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 P9WPP1 SwissProt · reviewed · Evidence at protein level
UniProt nameSteroid C26-monooxygenase
EC (curated) EC 1.14.15.29
Curated functionInvolved in the utilization of cholesterol as the sole carbon and energy source by degrading the side chain during infection. Primarily catalyzes the sequential oxidation of the terminal methyl of cholest-4-en-3-one into (25S)-26-hydroxycholest-4-en-3-one (alcohol), (25S)-26-oxocholest-4-en-3-one (aldehyde), to finally yield the carboxylic acid (25S)-3-oxocholest-4-en-26-oate. Also able to sequentially oxidize cholesterol itself, not only cholest-4-en-3-one.

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category Q Secondary metabolites biosynthesis, transport and catabolism
Preferred namecyp125
eggNOG descriptioncytochrome p450
Orthologous groupCOG2124
EC number EC 1.14.13.141
KEGG orthology K15981
KEGG pathways map00984, map01120
Gene Ontology (45) GO:0003674, GO:0003824, GO:0004497, GO:0005488, GO:0006066, GO:0006629, GO:0006706, GO:0006707, GO:0008150, GO:0008152, GO:0008202, GO:0008203 +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 0.15 · strong purifying
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 6 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) Bacteria

M. canettii dN/dS (deep-divergence selection) 0.301 (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 79.7% · 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 7/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Bacteria) · mean identity 56.3%
detected down to outside the phylum (Proteobacteria/Firmicutes controls) — a universally conserved, ancient bacterial 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) cholesterol-required

DeJesus 2017 callNE · non-essential
What the call meansnon-essential
TA sites (Himar1) 25 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 25 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 0.960, mean read count 165.916666667. A region of the protein devoid of TA sites is invisible to this assay: nothing can be inferred about it, in either direction.
Cholesterol catabolismrequired for growth on cholesterol (Griffin 2011)

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 (in vivo) -3.500.0 required
fitness on cholesterol (vs glycerol) (carbon source) -2.770.0 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -2.170.015 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -2.010.0074 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.670.034 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.670.027 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.660.038 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.610.041 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.600.03 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.560.042 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.530.017 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.480.03 required

Conditional fitness of transposon-disruption mutants across 12 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 abundance77.9 ppm · rank 1474/3519 (58.1th 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)

Length433 aa
Molecular weight48.4 kDa
Theoretical pI5.5
GRAVY-0.385 (hydrophilic)
Aliphatic index76.0
Aromaticity0.095
Instability index39.9 (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
p450PF00067.28 2.2e-13304–393 Cytochrome P450

Experimental structures (Protein Data Bank) 23 solved

PDBMethodResolutionCoverage
3ivy X-ray diffraction 1.352 Å 100%
2x5w X-ray diffraction 1.58 Å 100%
3iw0 X-ray diffraction 1.7 Å 100%
3iw1 X-ray diffraction 2.0 Å 100%
3iw2 X-ray diffraction 2.19 Å 100%
2x5l X-ray diffraction 1.48 Å 96%
2xc3 X-ray diffraction 1.5 Å 96%
2xn8 X-ray diffraction 1.64 Å 96%

Experimentally solved structures mapped from the UniProt accession via PDBe/SIFTS (23 total; up to 8 shown, ranked by sequence coverage then resolution). An experimental structure is direct proof of the folded product and the strongest structural evidence — superseding the predicted ESMFold/AlphaFold models below for any covered region.

Structural search (AlphaFold DB model, Foldseek vs PDB — genome-wide) pLDDT 94.0

PDB hitprobTM-scoreE-valueDescription
2xc3-assembly1_A 1.00 1.00 2.0e-64 sig 2xc3-assembly1_A X-ray structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cyp125 bound to the reverse type I inhibitor
2xn8-assembly1_A 1.00 1.00 4.5e-64 sig 2xn8-assembly1_A X-RAY STRUCTURE OF THE SUBSTRATE-FREE MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS CYTOCHROME P450 CYP125
7qwn-assembly1_A 1.00 1.00 3.2e-63 sig 7qwn-assembly1_A Crystal structure of CYP125 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with an inhibitor
7qwn-assembly1_B 1.00 1.00 5.2e-63 sig 7qwn-assembly1_B Crystal structure of CYP125 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with an inhibitor
7zlt-assembly2_B 1.00 1.00 8.3e-63 sig 7zlt-assembly2_B Crystal structure of CYP125 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with an inhibitor

Foldseek search of the AlphaFold DB model (mean pLDDT 94.0, 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 6

Upstream (5' on genome)fadE28 (- strand, -1 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)fadA5 (+ strand, 111 bp gap)
Predicted operon ltp2 · Rv3541c · Rv3542c · fadE29 · fadE28 · cyp125

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 (6 TF) Rv0081 (activates) · Rv0324 (activates) · Rv0681 (activates) · Rv1353c (activates) · Rv2034 (represses) · devR (activates)

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: fadE28 (acyl-CoA dehydrogenase FadE28), high confidence from genomic context alone (score 929 excluding text-mining).

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv3800c pks13 exp polyketide synthase 943 938 experimental:891
Rv3544c fadE28 acyl-CoA dehydrogenase FadE28 987 929 ctx neighborhood:882 textmining:833
Rv3518c cyp142 exp cytochrome P450 monooxygenase Cyp142 943 922 database:900
Rv1106c exp 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/delta 5-->4-isomerase 960 917 database:900 textmining:546
Rv3543c fadE29 acyl-CoA dehydrogenase FadE29 983 916 ctx neighborhood:882 textmining:816
Rv3542c chsH2 hyp hypothetical protein 916 910 ctx neighborhood:866
Rv3541c chsH1 hyp hypothetical protein 968 907 ctx neighborhood:863 textmining:672
Rv3409c choD exp cholesterol oxidase 933 900 database:900
Rv3540c ltp2 lipid transfer protein 980 865 ctx neighborhood:836 textmining:865
Rv3515c fadD19 exp acyl-CoA synthetase 908 807 database:670 textmining:546
Rv2380c mbtE exp peptide synthetase 809 800 experimental:689
Rv1937 exp oxygenase 812 785 experimental:478
Rv2776c oxidoreductase 747 732
Rv0719 rplF exp 50S ribosomal protein L6 689 689 experimental:412 database:493
Rv1629 polA exp DNA polymerase I 706 687 database:638

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): steroid C26-monooxygenase
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): p450 PF00067.28 (E=2e-13)
  • (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_218062.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — p450 (PF00067.28)
  • 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 COG2124
  • Curated reference: UniProt P9WPP1 (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 94.0)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 140 functional partner(s); context anchor fadE28
  • Essentiality: genome-wide transposon mutagenesis in H37Rv — DeJesus et al. 2017 (mBio, doi:10.1128/mBio.02133-16, CC BY); cholesterol requirement from Griffin et al. 2011 (doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002251)
  • 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
  • Experimental structures: PDBe/SIFTS UniProt→PDB mapping (Dana et al. 2019, doi:10.1093/nar/gky1114)
  • 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|Rv3545c|cyp125
MSWNHQSVEIAVRRTTVPSPNLPPGFDFTDPAIYAERLPVAEFAELRSAAPIWWNGQDPGKGGGFHDGGFWAITKLNDVKEISRHSDVFSSYENGVIPRFKNDIAREDIEVQRFVMLNMDAPHHTRLRKIISRGFTPRAVGRLHDELQERAQKIAAEAAAAGSGDFVEQVSCELPLQAIAGLLGVPQEDRGKLFHWSNEMTGNEDPEYAHIDPKASSAELIGYAMKMAEEKAKNPADDIVTQLIQADIDGEKLSDDEFGFFVVMLAVAGNETTRNSITQGMMAFAEHPDQWELYKKVRPETAADEIVRWATPVTAFQRTALRDYELSGVQIKKGQRVVMFYRSANFDEEVFQDPFTFNILRNPNPHVGFGGTGAHYCIGANLARMTINLIFNAVADHMPDLKPISAPERLRSGWLNGIKHWQVDYTGRCPVAH