The Agr Quorum Sensing System Represses Persister Formation through Regulation of Phenol Soluble Modulins in Staphylococcus aureus.

ABSTRACT: The opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus aureus has become an increasing threat to public health. While the Agr quorum sensing (QS) system is a master regulator of S. aureus virulence, its dysfunction has been frequently reported to promote bacteremia and mortality in clinical infections. Here we show that the Agr system is involved in persister formation in S. aureus. Mutation of either agrCA or agrD but not RNAIII resulted in increased persister formation of stationary phase cultures. RNA-seq analysis showed that in stationary phase AgrCA/AgrD and RNAIII mutants showed consistent up-regulation of virulence associated genes (lip and splE, etc.) and down-regulation of metabolism genes (bioA and nanK, etc.). Meanwhile, t

SUBMITTER: Xu T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5681930 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature