Staphylococcal superantigen-like (SSL) proteins, which are encoded by a cluster of eleven ssl genes, contribute to the Staphylococcus aureus virulence. Recently we reported ssl8 expression profiles in seven clinically important strains-MW2, USA300FPR3757, MSSA476, Newman, RN6390, Mu50, and N315-and showed the differential expression of ssl8 in Newman, RN6390, and USA300FPR3757 strains, despite ...

Previous studies have shown that Agr genes, which encode thioredoxin domain-containing secreted proteins, play a critical role in limb regeneration in salamanders. To determine the evolutionary conservation of Agr function, it is important to examine whether Agrs play a similar role in species with a different type of regeneration. Here, we refined the phylogeny of Agrs, revealing three subfami...

The emergence and prevalence of high-level mupirocin-resistant, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MuH MRSA) is challenging the eradication of MRSA nasal carriage and the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections. To understand the potentially pathogenetic capacity and the genetic basis of MuH MRSA, it is important to have a detailed knowledge of the molecular traits of this organi...

Accessory gene regulator (agr locus) is a global regulator of many virulence gene expressions inStaphylococcus aureus. Four interference classes related to genetic polymorphisms in the agr locus have sofar been described. In the present study, the agr locus specificity groups were studied within a total of 43 S.aureus isolates which were isolated from ewes with mastitis in three regions in the ...

A Staphylococcus aureus gene originally identified by signature-tagged mutagenesis as being required for virulence was cloned, sequenced and named svrA. Hydropathy profiles revealed that SvrA is likely to be membrane associated, having two regions with six membrane-spanning domains, the regions separated by an extended hydrophilic loop. When compared with the wild-type strain, an svrA mutant ex...

BACKGROUND/AIM Staphylococcus aureus colonization is a determiner of disease activation in psoriasis patients. Here we evaluate the presence of genes encoding Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), enterotoxins, TSST-1, exfoliative toxins, and the accessory gene regulatory locus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in S. aureus isolates obtained from healthy and diseased skin regions and anterior nar...

Quorum sensing via the accessory gene regulator (agr) system has been assigned a central role in the pathogenesis of staphylococci, particularly Staphylococcus aureus. While the control of virulence gene expression in vitro by agr has been relatively straightforward to describe, regulation of both the quorum response itself and virulence genes in vivo is considerably more complex. The quorum re...

Staphylococcus aureus is both a colonizer of humans and a cause of severe invasive infections. Although the genetic basis for phenotype switching from colonizing to invasive has received significant study, knowledge of host factors that antagonize the switch is limited. We show that VLDL and LDL lipoproteins interfere with this switch by antagonizing the S. aureus agr quorum-sensing system that...

In a recent paper, we demonstrated that inactivation of the Agr system affects the patterns of survival of Listeria monocytogenes (A.-L. Vivant, D. Garmyn, L. Gal, and P. Piveteau, Front Cell Infect Microbiol 4:160, http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2014.00160). In this study, we investigated whether the Agr-mediated response is triggered during adaptation in soil, and we compared survival patter...