Journal article
Identification of a Novel Two-Component Regulatory System That Acts in Global Regulation of Virulence Factors of Staphylococcus aureus
Journal of bacteriology, Vol.183(4), pp.1113-1123
02/2001
DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.4.1113-1123.2001
PMCID: PMC94983
PMID: 11157922
Abstract
We have previously demonstrated that the presence of oxygen is necessary for the production of toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1) by
Staphylococcus aureus
in vitro. To investigate the mechanism by which oxygen might regulate toxin production, we identified homologs in
S. aureus
of the
Bacillus subtilis resDE
genes. The two-component regulatory system encoded by
resDE
, ResD-ResE, has been implicated in the global regulation of aerobic and anaerobic respiratory metabolism in
B. subtilis
. We have designated the
S. aureus
homologs
srrAB
(staphylococcal respiratory response). The effects of
srrAB
expression on expression of RNAIII (the effector molecule of the
agr
locus) and on production of TSST-1 (an exotoxin) and protein A (a surface-associated virulence factor) were investigated. Expression of RNAIII was inversely related to expression of
srrAB
. Disruption of
srrB
resulted in increased levels of RNAIII, while expression of
srrAB
in
trans
on a multicopy plasmid resulted in repression of RNAIII transcription, particularly in microaerobic conditions. Disruption of
srrB
resulted in decreased production of TSST-1 under microaerobic conditions and, to a lesser extent, under aerobic conditions as well. Overexpression of
srrAB
resulted in nearly complete repression of TSST-1 production in both microaerobic and aerobic conditions. Protein A production by the
srrB
mutant was upregulated in microaerobic conditions and decreased in aerobic conditions. Protein A production was restored to nearly wild-type levels by complementation of
srrAB
into the null mutant. These results indicate that the putative two-component system encoded by
srrAB
, SrrA-SrrB, acts in the global regulation of staphylococcal virulence factors, and may repress virulence factors under low-oxygen conditions. Furthermore,
srrAB
may provide a mechanistic link between respiratory metabolism, environmental signals, and regulation of virulence factors in
S. aureus
.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Identification of a Novel Two-Component Regulatory System That Acts in Global Regulation of Virulence Factors of Staphylococcus aureus
- Creators
- Jeremy M Yarwood - Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455John K McCormick - Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455Patrick M Schlievert - Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of bacteriology, Vol.183(4), pp.1113-1123
- DOI
- 10.1128/JB.183.4.1113-1123.2001
- PMID
- 11157922
- PMCID
- PMC94983
- NLM abbreviation
- J Bacteriol
- ISSN
- 0021-9193
- eISSN
- 1098-5530
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 02/2001
- Academic Unit
- Microbiology and Immunology; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984001138102771
Metrics
17 Record Views