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The mechanism of pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is thought to be multifactorial. Among the putative virulence factors is the antigen 85 (Ag85) complex. This family of exported fibronectin-binding proteins consists of members Ag85A, Ag85B, and Ag85C and is most prominently represented by 85A and 85B. These proteins have recently been shown to possess mycolyl transferase activity and likely play a role in cell wall synthesis. The purpose of this study was to generate strains of M. tuberculosis deficient in expression of the principal members of this complex in order to determine their role in the pathogenesis ofM. tuberculosis. Constructs of fbpA andfbpB disrupted with the kanamycin resistance marker ΩKm and containing varying amounts of flanking gene and plasmid vector sequences were then introduced as linear fragments into H37Rv by electroporation. Southern blot and PCR analyses …