The major autolysin of Staphylococcus aureus (AtlA) and of Staphylococcus epidermidis (AtlE) are well-studied enzymes. Here we created an atlA deletion mutant in S. aureus that formed large cell clusters and was biofilm-negative. In electron micrographs, the mutant cells were distinguished by rough outer cell surface. The mutant could be complemented using the atlE gene from S. epidermidis. To ...

Streptococcus mutans is the primary odontopathogen present in supragingival plaque and causes the oral disease known as dental caries. Colonization of the oral cavity by S. mutans requires the bacteria to adhere to the tooth surface and occurs by both sucrose-dependent and -independent mechanisms. Sucrose-independent adhesion of S. mutans in vitro has been shown to involve an ORF (ORF0317) enco...

Autolysis is a widespread phenomenon in bacteria. In batch fermentation of Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824, there is a spontaneous large-scale autolysis phenomenon with significant decrease of cell density immediately after exponential phase. To unravel the role of autolysis, an autolysin-coding gene, CA_C0554, was disrupted by using ClosTron system to obtain the mutant C. acetobutylicum ly...

21 Objectives: Whether synergistic antimicrobial combination in vitro would be beneficial in 22 down regulation of pneumococcal virulent genes and associated inflammation of the lung 23 tissue induced by multi-drug resistant S. pneumoniae infection in vivo needs to be elucidated 24 for considering this mode of therapy in case of severe pneumococcal infection. 25 Methods: We investigated the in ...

Growing Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum was lysed by sodium ion concentrations above 0.1 M (maximum effect at 0.3 M). The rate of lysis depended on the age of the culture. The most rapid lysis occurred in organisms from logarithmically growing cultures which were incubated for 3 to 5 h; organisms from stationary phase cultures were completely resistant to Na+-induced lysis. Sodium ionind...

The search for new drugs against Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is driven by the 1.5 million deaths it causes annually. Choline-binding proteins attach to the pneumococcal cell wall through domains that recognize choline moieties, and their involvement in pneumococcal virulence makes them potential targets for drug development. We have defined chemical criteria involved in the docking ...

Biofilm production is a major attribute of Enterococcus faecalis clinical isolates. Although some factors, such as sortases, autolysin, and extracellular DNA (eDNA), have been associated with E. faecalis biofilm production, the mechanisms underlying the contributions of these factors to this process have not been completely elucidated yet. In this study we define important roles for the major E...