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: 1434. ErratumPubMed 34. Singh KV, Qin X, Weinstock GM, Murray BE: Generation and testing of mutants of Enterococcus faecalis in a mouse peritonitis model. J Infect Dis 1998, 178 (5) : 1416–1420.PubMedCrossRef 35. Nallapareddy SR, Weinstock GM, Murray BE: Clinical isolates of Enterococcus faecium exhibit strain-specific collagen binding mediated by Acm, a new member of the MSCRAMM family. Mol Microbiol 2003, 47 (6) : 1733–1747.PubMedCrossRef 36. Bork P, Koonin EV: A P-loop-like motif in MRT67307 mw a widespread ATP pyrophosphatase domain: implications for the evolution of sequence motifs and enzyme activity. Proteins 1994, 20 (4) : 347–355.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions DP carried out molecular genetics studies, animal experiments SPTBN5 and participated in editing the manuscript. MCM, SR and MFM performed molecular genetics experiments.

KVS carried out part of the animal work. BEM and LBR participated in editing the manuscript and data analysis. CAA is the principal investigator, conceived the study, designed the experiments, performed data analysis and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.”
“Background Tuberculosis is an airborne infection caused by M. tuberculosis. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population is latently infected with M. tuberculosis, and that each year about three million people die of this disease. The emergence of drug-resistant strains is further worsening the threat (WHO, 2003). In spite of global research efforts, mechanisms underlying pathogenesis, virulence and persistence of M. tuberculosis infection remain poorly understood [1]. A central issue in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis is the characterization of virulence determinants of M. tuberculosis that are relevant to human disease [2]. Attenuated strains of mycobacteria can be exploited to determine genes essential for pathogenesis and persistence. The best studied virulent laboratory strain of M. tuberculosis H37Rv has an avirulent counterpart in M. tuberculosis H37Ra, which was recognized as early as 1934 [3].