Clinical and MRI-Based Assessment of Patients with Temporomandibular Disorders Treated by Controlled Mandibular Repositioning.

BACKGROUND: Occlusal splints and anterior repositioning splints (ARSs) are widely accepted treatments for temporomandibular disorders (TMDs). However, there is uncertainty with regard to the most suitable amount of mandibular repositioning. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical and functional effects of the therapeutic position (ThP) established based on the Controlled Mandibular Repositioning (CMR) method. METHODS: In this clinical trial, 20 subjects with 37 joints with disc displacement with reduction were recruited. The initial standard functional diagnostic protocol, MRI, and digital condylography were performed, and ThP was calculated with the CMR method. After a 6-month follow-up, the standard diagnostic protocol was repeated. The change in disc position was evaluated by means of MRI after 6 months of CMR therapy. RESULTS: The MRI findings in the parasagittal plane demonstrated that out of the 37 joints presenting disc displacement, 36 discs were successfully repositioned; thus, the condyle-disc-fossa relationship was re-established. Therefore, the success rate of this pilot study was 97.3%. The mean position of the displaced discs was at 10:30 o'clock of the TMJ joint and at 12:00 o'clock after CMR therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The ThP determined using the CMR approach reduced all of the anteriorly displaced discs (except one). The CMR method allowed to define an optimum ThP of the mandible thus supporting patients' effective adaptation to treatment position.

Thermal hydrolysis of sewage sludge: Improvement in biogas generation and prediction of global warming potential.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a prominent treatment method for the sludge produced from sewage treatment plants. Poor solid reduction and longer retention time are the main drawbacks of AD. Thermal hydrolysis (TH) is a potential pretreatment method for solubilization of sewage sludge (SS) solids thereby improving biogas production during AD post-treatment. In this study, the SS sample (total solids = 1.75 wt% and total chemical oxygen demand (COD) = 15,450 mg L-1) was subjected to TH pretreatment (temperature = 140-180°C and reaction time = 60 minutes) in a 0.7-L capacity stainless-steel high-pressure reactor. At a reaction temperature of 180°C, the maximum solid solubilization (total dissolved solids = 4652 mg L-1) and improved dewaterability (time to filter = 4.7 s.L g-1) were observed. The biochemical methane potential test results showed almost doubling of methane generation from 145 to 284 mL gCOD-1 after TH pretreatment at 180°C. The life cycle assessment approach was used to compare various SS treatment and disposal scenarios, two of which included hydrothermal pretreatment. The scenarios involving hydrothermal pretreatments showed the least global warming potential.

Porous nanorods by stacked NiO nanoparticulate exhibiting corn-like structure for sustainable environmental and energy applications.

A porous 1D nanostructure provides much shorter electron transport pathways, thereby helping to improve the life cycle of the device and overcome poor ionic and electronic conductivity, interfacial impedance between electrode-electrolyte interface, and low volumetric energy density. In view of this, we report on the feasibility of 1D porous NiO nanorods comprising interlocked NiO nanoparticles as an active electrode for capturing greenhouse CO2, effective supercapacitors, and efficient electrocatalytic water-splitting applications. The nanorods with a size less than 100 nm were formed by stacking cubic crystalline NiO nanoparticles with dimensions less than 10 nm, providing the necessary porosity. The existence of Ni2+ and its octahedral coordination with O2- is corroborated by XPS and EXAFS. The SAXS profile and BET analysis showed 84.731 m2 g-1 surface area for the porous NiO nanorods. The NiO nanorods provided significant surface-area and the active-surface-sites thus yielded a CO2 uptake of 63 mmol g-1 at 273 K via physisorption, a specific-capacitance (CS) of 368 F g-1, along with a retention of 76.84% after 2500 cycles, and worthy electrocatalytic water splitting with an overpotential of 345 and 441 mV for HER and OER activities, respectively. Therefore, the porous 1D NiO as an active electrode shows multifunctionality toward sustainable environmental and energy applications.

Efficacy of a typical clean-in-place protocol against in vitro membrane biofilms.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a typical clean-in-place (CIP) protocol against in vitro biofilms on whey reverse osmosis (RO) membranes developed under static condition. Bacterial isolates obtained from RO membrane biofilms were used to develop single and multispecies biofilms under laboratory conditions. A typical commercial CIP protocol was tested against the 24-h-old biofilms, and included 6 sequential treatment steps based on alkali, surfactant, acid, enzyme, a second surfactant, and a sanitizer treatment step. Experiments were conducted in 4 replicates and the data were statistically analyzed. The results revealed a variation in the resistance of mixed-species biofilms against the individual steps in the sequential CIP protocol. The overall 6 steps protocol, although resulted in a greater reduction, also resulted in the detection of survivors even after the final sanitizer step, reflect the ineffectiveness of the CIP protocol for complete removal of biofilms. Posttreatment counts of 0.71 log after the sequential CIP of mixed-species biofilm revealed the resistance of biofilm constitutive microbiota. Mixed-species biofilms, constituting different genera including Bacillus, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus, were observed to be more resistant than most of the single-species biofilms. However, among the single-species biofilms, significantly different resistance pattern was observed for Bacillus isolates compared with the other bacterial isolates. All 5 isolates of Bacillus were found resistant with survivor counts of more than 1.0 log against the sequential CIP protocol tested. Thus, it can be concluded that the tested CIP protocol had a limited effectiveness to clean membrane biofilms formed on the whey RO membranes.

Temporomandibular Joint Osseous Morphology of Class I and Class II Malocclusions in the Normal Skeletal Pattern: A Cone-Beam Computed Tomography Study.

(1) Background-The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osseous morphology of normal skeletal pattern individuals with different dental malocclusions by using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). (2) Methods-The CBCT images of bilateral TMJs in 67 subjects with skeletal class I and average mandibular angle (26 males and 41 females, age range 20-49 years) were evaluated in this study. The subjects were divided into class I, class II division 1, and class II division 2 according to the molar relationship and retroclination of the maxillary incisors. Angular and linear measurements of TMJ were evaluated and the differences between the groups were statistically analyzed. (3) Results-Intragroup comparisons showed statistical differences for articular eminence inclination, the width of the glenoid fossa, the ratio of the width of the glenoid fossa to the depth of the glenoid fossa, the condylar angle, and the intercondylar angle between the malocclusion groups. The measurements of the glenoid fossa shape showed no significant difference between the left and right sides. Females showed more differences in the morphological parameters of TMJ between the three malocclusion groups than the males. (4) Conclusion-The present study revealed differences in the TMJ osseous morphology between dental class I and class II malocclusions in the normal skeletal pattern.

Nutritional and phytochemical profiling of nutracereal finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) genotypes.

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) is gaining popularity as healthy food due to its nutritional and phytochemical properties. This study reports nutritional and phytochemical profile of ten finger millet genotypes. Proximate analysis of finger millet genotypes revealed moisture, total carbohydrate, protein, fat, fiber and ash in the range of 7.50-11.75, 71.90-76.38, 6.7-8.0, 1.2-1.7, 3.1-3.8 and 3.1-3.8 per cent respectively. Micro-nutrient profiling showed Ca, Fe, Zn, P, K and Mn in the range of 2400.00-3400.00, 40.28-47.60, 12.40-17.45, 1600.00-2900.00, 3800.00-5200.00 and 51.33-61.28 mg kg-1 respectively. Phytochemical profiling was done for total phenol, phytic acid, tannins, flavonoids, HCN, oxalate and trypsin inhibitor which were observed in the range of 99.75-112.25, 210.75-302.75, 340.00-500.00, 62.23-74.05, 2.45-2.80, 19.80-26.23 mg 100 g-1 and 207.35-234.23 TIU g-1 respectively. Amino acid profiling showed good amount of essential amino acids. Nutritional and phytochemical profiling of finger millet genotypes showed its potentiality to become source of health promoting food.

Is There an Association between Temporomandibular Disorders and Articular Eminence Inclination? A Systematic Review.

(1) Background: In order to determine the correlation between the inclination of articular eminence (AEI) and the development of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs), a systematic review was performed. (2) Methods: A systematic literature research was conducted between 1946 and January 2020, based on the following electronic databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, Scope, SciELO, and Lilacs. Observational studies, analytical case-control studies, and cohort studies written in English were identified. The articles were selected and analyzed by two authors independently. The PICO format was used to analyze the studies and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to verify the quality of the evidence. (3) Results: Sixteen articles were included in this review, ten case-control studies and six cohort studies. Eight articles (50%) established a positive relation between AEI and TMDs and eight (50%) did not. The scientific quality was medium-low, mainly influenced by the exposure to the risk of bias and the lack of clinical methods with adequate consistency and sensitivity on the diagnosis of TMDs. (4) Conclusions: It is controversial to establish a causal relationship between the TMDs and the AEI in the field of stomatology, due to limited and inconclusive evidence. However, it is suggested that the AEI defined by some specific methods may be associated with some special pathological stages of TMDs. High-quality prospective studies are required to draw any definitive conclusions.

Cytokine Signature Associated with Disease Severity in Dengue.

Dengue is the most rapidly spreading viral disease transmitted by the bite of infected Aedes mosquitos. The pathogenesis of dengue is still unclear; although host immune responses and virus serotypes have been proposed to contribute to disease severity. In this study, we examined the circulating dengue virus (DENV) and measured plasma levels of inflammatory mediators. Ninety-eight patients during a dengue outbreak in eastern India in 2016 were included in the study. The presence of DENV was demonstrated by detecting NS1 antigen; IgM capture ELISA and serotypes were discriminated by type-specific RT-PCR and/or sequencing. Plasma samples were assayed for 41-plex cytokine/chemokines using multiplex Luminex assay. Eighty-five (87%) samples were positive by NS1/IgM capture ELISA/RT-PCR. All four serotypes of DENV were detected in this outbreak, with DENV-2 as the predominant type, seen in 55% of cases. Mixed infections were seen in 39% of subjects. Among the host inflammatory biomarkers, GM-CSF, IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-15, IL-8, MCP-1, IL-6, MIP-1ß, and TNF-α levels were significantly increased in dengue with and without warning signs, in severe dengue patients in comparison to healthy controls. Four cytokines IFN-γ, GM-CSF, IL-10, and MIP-1ß correlated significantly with disease severity and could serve as potential predictor for disease severity. Information on the host biomarkers and the dengue serotype may help guide in optimizing effective intervention strategies.

Concomitant Guillain Barre Syndrome and Transverse Myelitis as Initial Neuropsychiatric Manifestation in a Case of Lupus: A Diagnostic Quandary.

Neuropsychiatric manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus are varied. Presently nineteen in number, they are classified as whether affecting the central or the peripheral compartments of the nervous system. Its diagnosis however remains difficult, more so when two or more of the syndromes are found concomitantly in the same patient and when they occur in absence of the more classical rash, serositis, and haematological manifestations. We present a case of lupus where myelopathy as well as demyelination existed simultaneously as the initial neurologic manifestation.

Molecular characterisation of Aspergillus flavus isolates from peanut fields in India using AFLP.

Aflatoxin contamination of peanut, due to infection by Aspergillus flavus, is a major problem of rain-fed agriculture in India. In the present study, molecular characterisation of 187 Aspergillus flavus isolates, which were sampled from the peanut fields of Gujarat state in India, was performed using AFLP markers. On a pooled cluster analysis, the markers could successfully discriminate among the 'A', 'B' and 'G' group A. flavus isolates. PCoA analysis also showed equivalent results to the cluster analysis. Most of the isolates from one district could be clustered together, which indicated genetic similarity among the isolates. Further, a lot of genetic variability was observed within a district and within a group. The results of AMOVA test revealed that the variance within a population (84%) was more than that between two populations (16%). The isolates, when tested by indirect competitive ELISA, showed about 68.5% of them to be atoxigenic. Composite analysis between the aflatoxin production and AFLP data was found to be ineffective in separating the isolate types by aflatoxigenicity. Certain unique fragments, with respect to individual isolates, were also identified that may be used for development of SCAR marker to aid in rapid and precise identification of isolates.

Molecular characterisation of Aspergillus flavus isolates from peanut fields in India using AFLP

Aflatoxin contamination of peanut, due to infection by Aspergillus flavus, is a major problem of rain-fed agriculture in India. In the present study, molecular characterisation of 187 Aspergillus flavus isolates, which were sampled from the peanut fields of Gujarat state in India, was performed using AFLP markers. On a pooled cluster analysis, the markers could successfully discriminate among the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘G’ group A. flavus isolates. PCoA analysis also showed equivalent results to the cluster analysis. Most of the isolates from one district could be clustered together, which indicated genetic similarity among the isolates. Further, a lot of genetic variability was observed within a district and within a group. The results of AMOVA test revealed that the variance within a population (84%) was more than that between two populations (16%). The isolates, when tested by indirect competitive ELISA, showed about 68.5% of them to be atoxigenic. Composite analysis between the aflatoxin production and AFLP data was found to be ineffective in separating the isolate types by aflatoxigenicity. Certain unique fragments, with respect to individual isolates, were also identified that may be used for development of SCAR marker to aid in rapid and precise identification of isolates.

RD-1 encoded EspJ protein gets phosphorylated prior to affect the growth and intracellular survival of mycobacteria.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) synchronizes a number of processes and controls a series of events to subvert host defense mechanisms for the sake of residing inside macrophages. Besides these, MTB also possesses a wide range of signal enzyme systems, including eleven serine threonine protein kinases (STPKs). The present study describes STPK modulated modification in one of the hypothetical proteins of the RD1 region; EspJ (ESX-1 secretion associated protein), which is predicted to be involved in virulence of MTB. We have employed knock-out MTB, and M. bovis BCG as a surrogate strain to elaborate the consequence of the phosphorylation of EspJ. The molecular and mass spectrometric analyses in this study, confirmed EspJ as one of the substrates of STPKs. The ectopic expression of phosphoablative mutants of espJ in M. bovis BCG also articulated the effect of phosphorylation on the growth and in survival of mycobacteria. Importantly, the level of phosphorylation of EspJ also differed between pathogenic H37 Rv (Rv) and non pathogenic H37 Ra (Ra) strains of MTB. This further suggested that to a certain extent, the STPKs mediated phosphorylation may be accountable, in determining the growth and in intra-cellular survival of mycobacteria.

Morphological and toxigenic variability in the Aspergillus flavus isolates from peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production system in Gujarat (India).

Morphological and toxigenic variability in 187 Aspergillus flavus isolates, collected from a major Indian peanut production system, from 10 districts of Gujarat was studied. On the basis of colony characteristics, the isolates were grouped as group A (83%), B (11%) and G (6%). Of all the isolates, 21%, 47% and 32% were found to be fast-growing, moderately-fast and slow-growing respectively, and nosclerotia and sclerotia production was recorded in 32.1% and 67% isolates respectively. Large, medium and small number of sclerotia production was observed in 55, 38 and 34 isolates respectively. Toxigenic potential based on ammonia vapour test was not found reliable, while ELISA test identified 68.5%, 18.7% and 12.8% isolates as atoxigenic, moderately-toxigenic and highly-toxigenic, respectively. On clustering, the isolates were grouped into 15 distinct clusters, 'A' group of isolates was grouped distinctly in different clusters, while 'B' and 'G' groups of isolates were clustered together. No association was observed between morphological-diversity and toxigenic potential of the isolates. From the present investigation, most virulent isolates were pooled to form a consortium for sick-plot screening of germplasm, against Aspergillus flavus. In future, atoxigenic isolates may be evaluated for their potential to be used as bio-control agent against toxigenicisolates.

Characterization of M. tuberculosis SerB2, an essential HAD-family phosphatase, reveals novel properties.

M. tuberculosis harbors an essential phosphoserine phosphatase (MtSerB2, Rv3042c) that contains two small- molecule binding ACT-domains (Pfam 01842) at the N-terminus followed by the phosphoserine phosphatase (PSP) domain. We found that exogenously added MtSerB2 elicits microtubule rearrangements in THP-1 cells. Mutational analysis demonstrates that phosphatase activity is co-related to the elicited rearrangements, while addition of the ACT-domains alone elicits no rearrangements. The enzyme is dimeric, exhibits divalent metal- ion dependency, and is more specific for l- phosphoserine unlike other classical PSPases. Binding of a variety of amino acids to the ACT-domains influences MtSerB2 activity by either acting as activators/inhibitors/have no effects. Additionally, reduced activity of the PSP domain can be enhanced by equimolar addition of the ACT domains. Further, we identified that G18 and G108 of the respective ACT-domains are necessary for ligand-binding and their mutations to G18A and G108A abolish the binding of ligands like l- serine. A specific transition to higher order oligomers is observed upon the addition of l- serine at ∼0.8 molar ratio as supported by Isothermal calorimetry and Size exclusion chromatography experiments. Mutational analysis shows that the transition is dependent on binding of l- serine to the ACT-domains. Furthermore, the higher-order oligomeric form of MtSerB2 is inactive, suggesting that its formation is a mechanism for feedback control of enzyme activity. Inhibition studies involving over eight inhibitors, MtSerB2, and the PSP domain respectively, suggests that targeting the ACT-domains can be an effective strategy for the development of inhibitors.

Phosphorylation of pyruvate kinase A by protein kinase J leads to the altered growth and differential rate of intracellular survival of mycobacteria.

PknJ (Rv2088) is a serine/threonine protein kinase of mycobacteria which is present in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), but its gene is absent in Mycobacterium smegmatis (MS); a fast grower and nonpathogenic species of mycobacteria. The heterologous expression of MTB-specific PknJ in MS altered the growth of recombinant mycobacteria highlighting one of the characteristics of this protein. This nature of the protein was further confirmed when Mycobacterium bovis BCG (BCG) containing antisense copy of pknJ resulted in the increased growth of BCG. The real-time RNA quantification analysis pointed out toward increased expression of this protein during infection of THP-1 macrophage cells which further emphasized that the protein is essential for the intracellular survival of mycobacteria. The differential in gel electrophoresis (DIGE) data followed by mass spectroscopy suggested that PknJ is involved in regulation of pyruvate kinase A (Rv1617). Since pyruvate kinase (PK) A is one of the key enzymes which controls glycolytic cycle in mycobacteria, we looked for its interaction with PknJ during extracellular and intracellular growth of mycobacteria. In order to identify the specific residue(s) involved in post-translational modification, the phospho-null mutants of PK were generated, and their substrate specificities in response to PknJ were assessed through kinase assay. The findings thus underlined that the PK activity is predominantly dependent on the threonine residue at the 94(th) position and further suggested that this site may be plausible in intracellular survival of mycobacteria upon phosphorylation with PknJ.

Development and Control of Bacterial Biofilms on Dairy Processing Membranes.

Membrane fouling is a major operational problem that leads to reduced membrane performance and premature replacement of membranes. Bacterial biofilms developed on reverse osmosis membranes can cause severe flux declines during whey processing. Various types of biological, physical, and chemical factors regulate the formation of biofilms. Extracellular polymeric substances produced by constitutive microflora provide an effective barrier for the embedded cells. Cultural and microscopic techniques also revealed the presence of biofilms with attached bacterial cells on membrane surfaces. Presence of biofilms, despite regular cleaning processes, reflects ineffectiveness of cleaning agents. Cleaning efficiency depends upon factors such as pH of the cleaning agent, temperature, pressure, cleaning agent dose, optimum cleaning time, and cross-flow velocity during cleaning. Among different cleaning agents, surfactants help to prevent bacterial attachment to surfaces by reducing the surface tension of water and interfacial tension between the layers. Enzymes mixed with surfactants and chelating agents can be used to penetrate the biofilm matrix formed by microbes. Recent studies have shown the role of quorum-sensing-based cell-to-cell signaling, which provides communication within bacterial cells to form a mature biofilm, and also the role of applying quorum inhibitors to prevent biofilm formation. Major cleaning applications are also summarized in Table .

Resistance of the constitutive microflora of biofilms formed on whey reverse-osmosis membranes to individual cleaning steps of a typical clean-in-place protocol.

This experiment evaluates the effectiveness of individual steps of a clean-in-place protocol against the biofilm constitutive microflora isolated from the biofilms developed on whey reverse-osmosis membranes, aged 2 to 14 mo, under industrial processing conditions. The isolates used for the in vitro resistance studies included species of Bacillus, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Aeromonas, Corynebacterium, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, and Escherichia. The 6 cleaning steps (alkali, surfactant, acid, enzyme, a second surfactant, and sanitizer treatment) revealed resistance of isolates in both planktonic and biofilm-embedded cell states. The most effective step was the acid treatment, which resulted in 4.54 to 7.90 and 2.09 to 5.02 log reductions of the planktonic and biofilm-embedded cells, respectively. Although the sanitizer step causing a reduction of 4.91 to 8.33 log in the case of planktonic cells, it was less effective against the biofilm-embedded cells, resulting in a reduction of 0.59 to 1.64 log. Bacillus spp. showed the highest resistance in both planktonic, as well as embedded cell states.

Putative roles of a proline-glutamic acid-rich protein (PE3) in intracellular survival and as a candidate for subunit vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The proline-glutamic acid (PE) protein family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) plays diverse roles in the pathogenesis and modulation of host immune responses. The uniqueness of conserved regions of PE proteins may be useful to test and validate their corresponding functions. Hence, the present study has been undertaken to demonstrate the role of PE3 (Rv0159c) for persistence, host immune response and immunoprophylaxis. We have expressed Mtb-specific PE3 gene in M. smegmatis (MS) and used the strain to infect J774A.1 macrophage cells and BALB/c mice. It was observed that during the infection, the MS expressing PE3 showed higher bacterial load when compared to infection with wild-type MS. In hypoxic condition, the expression level of PE3 gene was induced in Mtb, which further showed its relevance in the cell survival during hypoxia-induced persistence. The expression level of PE3 in Mtb was markedly induced during chronic stage of murine infection, which reiterated its importance in mycobacterial persistence in the host. The immunization of mice with recombinant PE3 protein stimulated the secretion of TNF, IL-6 and IL-2 cytokines and generated strong protective immunity against challenge with live mycobacteria, which was evidenced by decreased viable bacilli in the lungs, histopathological changes and increased survival of PE3 immunized mice. Conclusively, the results indicated that PE3 plays significant roles in mycobacterial persistence during infection, modulate host immune response and hence could be a prospective candidate for the development of subunit vaccine against tuberculosis.

Synthesis and evaluation of small libraries of triazolylmethoxy chalcones, flavanones and 2-aminopyrimidines as inhibitors of mycobacterial FAS-II and PknG.

A synthetic strategy to access small libraries of triazolylmethoxy chalcones 4{1-20}, triazolylmethoxy flavanones 5{1-10} and triazolylmethoxy aminopyrimidines 6{1-17} from a common substrate 4-propargyloxy-2-hydroxy acetophenone using a set of different reactions has been developed. The chalcones and flavanones were screened against mycobacterial FAS-II pathway using a recombinant mycobacterial strain, against which the most potent compound showed ∼88% inhibition in bacterial growth and substantially induction of reporter gene activity at 100 µM concentration. The triazolylmethoxy aminopyrimdines were screened against PknG of Mycobaceterium tuberculosis displaying moderate to good activity (23-53% inhibition at 100 µM), comparable to the action of a standard inhibitor.

Functional characterization delineates that a Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific protein kinase (Rv3080c) is responsible for the growth, phagocytosis and intracellular survival of avirulent mycobacteria.

Serine/threonine protein kinases (STPKs) are predominantly involved in growth, development, division, differentiation, and in regulating immune responses in mycobacteria. A wide variety of functions of mycobacterial STPKs persuade mycobacterial growth and further its survival in the hosts. The polymorphic studies have shown that a full length gene of Rv3080c (pknK) is present in the slow growing mycobacteria. The wild type Mycobacterium smegmatis containing only vector (M. smegmatis) and M. smegmatis containing Rv3080c (pknK) cloned in pMV261 vector (M. smegmatis::K) were cultured in different growth media. The studies have shown that M. smegmatis did not differ in the growth and in survival while a substantial reduction in the growth (four-ten-folds) and a significant delay in the colony formation were observed in M. smegmatis::K. In order to look for the stage specific and modulated expression of PknK, the study was comprehended to quantitate pknK transcripts at different phases of cultures. The mycobacterium, containing high copy number of pknK specific RNA was unable to multiply. The study thus highlights that Rv3080c is largely accountable for changing the fate of avirulent mycobacteria and hence the protein can be utilized as an important molecule to target pathogenesis.