Sensory deprivation in Staphylococcus aureus

Maite Villanueva, Begoña García, Jaione Valle, Beatriz Rapún, Igor Ruiz de los Mozos, Cristina Solano, Miguel Martí, José R. Penadés, Alejandro Toledo-Arana and Iñigo Lasa ()
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Maite Villanueva: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Begoña García: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Jaione Valle: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Beatriz Rapún: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Igor Ruiz de los Mozos: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Cristina Solano: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Miguel Martí: Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia (IBV-CSIC)
José R. Penadés: Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia (IBV-CSIC)
Alejandro Toledo-Arana: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra
Iñigo Lasa: UPNA-CSIC-Gobierno de Navarra

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Bacteria use two-component systems (TCSs) to sense and respond to environmental changes. The core genome of the major human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus encodes 16 TCSs, one of which (WalRK) is essential. Here we show that S. aureus can be deprived of its complete sensorial TCS network and still survive under growth arrest conditions similarly to wild-type bacteria. Under replicating conditions, however, the WalRK system is necessary and sufficient to maintain bacterial growth, indicating that sensing through TCSs is mostly dispensable for living under constant environmental conditions. Characterization of S. aureus derivatives containing individual TCSs reveals that each TCS appears to be autonomous and self-sufficient to sense and respond to specific environmental cues, although some level of cross-regulation between non-cognate sensor-response regulator pairs occurs in vivo. This organization, if confirmed in other bacterial species, may provide a general evolutionarily mechanism for flexible bacterial adaptation to life in new niches.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02949-y

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