Requirement of MgtC for Brucella suis intramacrophage growth: a potential mechanism shared by Salmonella enterica and Mycobacterium tuberculosis for adaptation to a low-Mg2+ environment.

A Brucella suis mgtC mutant is defective for growth within macrophages and in low-Mg(2+) medium. These phenotypes are strikingly similar to those observed with mgtC mutants from Salmonella enterica and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, two other pathogens that proliferate within phagosomes. MgtC appears as a remarkable virulence factor that would have been acquired by distantly related intracellular pathogens to contribute to the adaptation to a low-Mg(2+) environment in the phagosome.