chp1 Resolved · high auto-curated

H37Rv Rv3822 · MTBC0 mtbc0_004051 · 404 aa · 4310831–4312045 MTBC0 (+) · RefSeq NP_218339.1

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Annotation: from legacy to revised

Legacy (H37Rv / Mycobrowser)hypothetical protein
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotationsulfolipid-1 biosynthesis membrane-anchored acyltransferase Chp1
Revised (this work)Sulfolipid-1 biosynthesis membrane-anchored acyltransferase Chp1. Pfam: PE-PPE (PF08237.18).
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
Elucidation and chemical modulation of sulfolipid-1 biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. doi:10.1074/jbc.M111.315473 2012

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) highly disordered

Predicted disorder45% of residues (metapredict) · mean AlphaFold pLDDT 72.1
Disordered regions2 IDR(s), longest 100 aa [0-100, 323-404]

sequence-based disorder is high but AlphaFold folds it confidently (pLDDT>=70): treat the disorder call with caution (possible metapredict over-call)

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).

Phenotype-driven functional lead (hypothesis) priority 2.5

required for fitness in vivo (virulence / persistence factor); predicted secreted (signal peptide).

Corroborating evidenceSTRING-coupled to sap (integral membrane protein)

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.

Conditional expression context (iModulons)

Member of 1 independently-modulated gene set(s): PhoP (phoP).

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 1.27 (95% CI -0.62 to 4.24). 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, requalified function). 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 Mb3852 · 99.3% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_003935 · 99.3% 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 O07801 SwissProt · reviewed · Evidence at protein level
UniProt nameSL1278 acyltransferase Chp1
EC (curated) EC 2.3.1.284
Curated functionInvolved in the final steps of the cell wall sulfolipid-1 (SL-1) biosynthesis. Catalyzes two successive acylations of the precursor 2-palmitoyl-3-(C43)-phthioceranyl-alpha, alpha'-D-trehalose-2'-sulfate (SL1278) to yield the tetraacylated sulfolipid SL-1.

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category N Cell motility
eggNOG descriptionPE-PPE domain
Orthologous groupCOG5651

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) pseudogene candidate

pN/pS 1.012 · relaxed/neutral
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 6 synonymous, 17 missense, 0 nonsense, 1 frameshift
Disruption 1 distinct premature-stop/frameshift site(s); most common in 1.23% of strains (1781) · 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) Mycobacteriaceae

M. canettii dN/dS (deep-divergence selection) 0.143 (low power) · 7 consensus substitution(s)
low power (7 canettii-consensus substitution(s)); present in M. canettii but dN/dS not reliable
Genus-wide presence (~53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium) present in 49/53 (92%) · mean identity 43.5% · 3/4 closest MTBAP relatives
conserved across the genus (present in 49/53 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 1/13 non-Mycobacterium reference genomes (down to Mycobacteriaceae) · mean identity 46.3%
detected in the sister family Mycobacteriaceae (M. abscessus) but not in the broader Corynebacteriales — a Mycobacteriaceae-restricted gene (single-genome rung: interpret with care)

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) 40 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 40 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 0.900, mean read count 108.666666667. 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.

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

Conditionlog2FCqEffect
fitness after prolonged in vitro passage (in vitro passage) -2.070.0 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.490.0 required
fitness in mouse infection (in vivo) -1.400.011 required

Conditional fitness of transposon-disruption mutants across 3 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 7 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance6.33 ppm · rank 2857/3519 (18.8th 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.

Predicted localisation (DeepTMHMM + lipobox) signal peptide

Predictionpredicted secreted protein (signal peptide)
DeepTMHMM classSP

Transmembrane topology and signal peptide from DeepTMHMM (deep-learning reference predictor); lipoproteins from a (myco)bacterial lipobox motif. A sequence-based prediction of subcellular context.

Physico-chemical properties (computed, ProtParam)

Length404 aa
Molecular weight41.4 kDa
Theoretical pI8.94
GRAVY0.079 (hydrophobic)
Aliphatic index90.2
Aromaticity0.059
Instability index33.3 (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
PE-PPEPF08237.18 3.3e-76104–325 PE-PPE domain

Genomic context (neighbours & predicted operon) operon of 2

Upstream (5' on genome)Rv3821 (+ strand, 34 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)mmpL8 (- strand, 324 bp gap)
Predicted operon Rv3821 · Rv3822

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: sap (integral membrane protein), high confidence from genomic context alone (score 707 excluding text-mining). This association is the citable seed of a function hypothesis for this hypothetical protein.

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv1184c chp2 hyp hypothetical protein 783 740 coexpression:740
Rv3821 sap integral membrane protein 850 707 ctx neighborhood:703 textmining:511
Rv3849 espR ESX-1 transcriptional regulator EspR 580 580 coexpression:580
Rv3820c papA2 trehalose-2-sulfate acyltransferase 475 475 ctx neighborhood:472
Rv3823c mmpL8 integral membrane transport protein MmpL8 402 148
Rv2214c ephD oxidoreductase EphD 437 47 textmining:434
Rv1901 cinA competence damage-inducible protein CinA 435 45 textmining:433

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: sulfolipid-1 biosynthesis membrane-anchored acyltransferase Chp1
  • Pfam (hmmscan --cut_ga): PE-PPE PF08237.18 (E=3e-76)
  • (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_218339.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — PE-PPE (PF08237.18)
  • 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 COG5651
  • Curated reference: UniProt O07801 (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)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 7 functional partner(s); context anchor sap
  • 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
  • Predicted localisation: DeepTMHMM (Hallgren et al. 2022, doi:10.1101/2022.04.08.487609) for transmembrane topology and signal peptide
  • Primary literature: none located yet; annotation rests on the domain/homology sources above.

Ancestral MTBC0 protein sequence

>mtbc0_004051|Rv3822|chp1
MKCPGVSDCVATVRHDNVFAIAAGLRWSAAVPPLHKGDAVTKLLVGAIAGGMLACAAILGDGIASADTALIVPGTAPSPYGPLRSLYHFNPAMQPQIGANYYNPTATRHVVSYPGSFWPVTGLNSPTVGSSVSAGTNNLDAAIRSTDGPIFVAGLSQGTLVLDREQARLANDPTAPPPGQLTFIKAGDPNNLLWRAFRPGTHVPIIDYTVPAPVESQYDTINIVGQYDIFSDPPNRPGNLLADLNAIAAGGYYGHSATAFSDPARVAPRDITTTTNSLGATTTTYFIRTDQLPLVRALVDMAGLPPQAAGTVDAALRPIIDRAYQPGPAPAVNPRDLVQGIRGIPAIAPAIAIPIGSTTGASAATSTAAATAAATNALRGANVGPGANKALSMVRGLLPKGKKH