Clinical rel mutations in Staphylococcus aureus prime pathogen expansion under nutrient stress.

ABSTRACT: Persistent infection by Staphylococcus aureus has been linked to the bacterial stringent response (SR), a conserved stress response pathway regulated by the Rel protein. Rel synthesizes (p)ppGpp "alarmones" in response to amino acid starvation, which enables adaptation to stress by modulating bacterial growth and virulence. We previously identified five novel protein-altering mutations in rel that arose in patients with persistent methicillin-resistant S. aureus bacteremia. The mutations mapped to both the enzymatic and regulatory protein domains of Rel. Here, we set out to characterize the phenotype of these mutations to understand how they may have been selected in vivo. After introducing each mutation into S. aureus strain JE2, we analyzed growth, fitn

SUBMITTER: Chen E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10597345 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature