A horizontally gene transferred copper resistance locus confers hyper-resistance to antibacterial copper toxicity and enables survival of community acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA300 in macrophages.

ABSTRACT: Excess copper is highly toxic and forms part of the host innate immune system's antibacterial arsenal, accumulating at sites of infection and acting within macrophages to kill engulfed pathogens. We show for the first time that a novel, horizontally gene transferred copper resistance locus (copXL), uniquely associated with the SCCmec elements of the highly virulent, epidemic, community acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) USA300, confers copper hyper-resistance. These genes are additional to existing core genome copper resistance mechanisms, and are not found in typical S. aureus lineages, but are increasingly identified in emerging pathogenic isolates. Our data show that CopX, a putative P1B-3 -ATPase efflux transporter, and CopL, a novel lipoprotein, confer copp

SUBMITTER: Purves J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5947656 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature