Ubiquitous selection for mecA in community-associated MRSA across diverse chemical environments

Olga Snitser, Dor Russ, Laura K. Stone, Kathy K. Wang, Haleli Sharir, Noga Kozer, Galit Cohen, Haim M. Barr and Roy Kishony ()
Additional contact information
Olga Snitser: Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology
Dor Russ: Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology
Laura K. Stone: DSM Biotechnology Center
Kathy K. Wang: University of Illinois - Metropolitan Group Hospitals
Haleli Sharir: Weizmann Institute of Science
Noga Kozer: Weizmann Institute of Science
Galit Cohen: Weizmann Institute of Science
Haim M. Barr: Weizmann Institute of Science
Roy Kishony: Faculty of Biology, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) is threatening public health as it spreads worldwide across diverse environments. Its genetic hallmark, the mecA gene, confers resistance to many β-lactam antibiotics. Here, we show that, in addition, mecA provides a broad selective advantage across diverse chemical environments. Competing fluorescently labelled wild-type and mecA-deleted CA-MRSA USA400 strains across ~57,000 compounds supplemented with subinhibitory levels of the β-lactam drug cefoxitin, we find that mecA provides a widespread advantage across β-lactam and non β-lactam antibiotics, non-antibiotic drugs and even diverse natural and synthetic compounds. This advantage depends on the presence of cefoxitin and is strongly associated with the compounds’ physicochemical properties, suggesting that it may be mediated by differential compounds permeability into the cell. Indeed, mecA protects the bacteria against increased cell-envelope permeability under subinhibitory cefoxitin treatment. Our findings suggest that CA-MRSA success might be driven by a cell-envelope mediated selective advantage across diverse chemical compounds.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19825-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-19825-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19825-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().