Cholesterol-Dependent Metabolism Promotes Bedaquiline Tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Limiting Energetic Disruption

Cholesterol is an important carbon source for Mycobacterium tuberculosis during infection and has been shown to influence antibiotic susceptibility. To investigate how the growth environment shapes the transcriptomic response to BDQ, we performed RNA-seq on M. tuberculosis H37Rv cultures grown in standard medium or cholesterol-supplemented medium (0.2 mM) and treated with low-dose (0.625 μg/mL) or high-dose (2.5 μg/mL) BDQ, or DMSO as vehicle control, for 4 hours.