Embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis kills more than one million people each year. To better understand why M. tuberculosis is virulent and to discover chemical markers of this pathogen, we compared its lipid profile to that of the attenuated but related mycobacterium, Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG). This strategy identified previously unknown compounds that are specific to M. tuberculosis, e.g. 1-tuberculosinyladenosine, N6-tuberculosinyladenosine, and various tuberculosinyladenosines having mycolic acids, produced by the Rv3378c enzyme.