Non-Monotonic Survival of Staphylococcus aureus with Respect to Ciprofloxacin Concentration Arises from Prophage-Dependent Killing of Persisters.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious pathogen with a propensity to cause chronic, non-healing wounds. Bacterial persisters have been implicated in the recalcitrance of S. aureus infections, and this motivated us to examine the persistence of S. aureus to ciprofloxacin, a quinolone antibiotic. Upon treatment of exponential phase S. aureus with ciprofloxacin, we observed that survival was a non-monotonic function of ciprofloxacin concentration. Maximal killing occurred at 1 µg/mL ciprofloxacin, which corresponded to survival that was up to ~40-fold lower than that obtained with concentrations ≥ 5 µg/mL. Investigation of this phenomenon revealed that the non-monotonic response was associated with prophage induction, which facilitated killing of S. aureus persisters. Elimination of prophage in

SUBMITTER: Sandvik EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4695809 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature