Joint Genomic and Proteomic Analysis Identifies Meta-Trait Characteristics of Virulent and Non-virulent Staphylococcus aureus Strains.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen of humans and warm-blooded animals and presents a growing threat in terms of multi-drug resistance. Despite numerous studies, the basis of staphylococcal virulence and switching between commensal and pathogenic phenotypes is not fully understood. Using genomics, we show here that S. aureus strains exhibiting virulent (VIR) and non-virulent (NVIR) phenotypes in a chicken embryo infection model genetically fall into two separate groups, with the VIR group being much more cohesive than the NVIR group. Significantly, the genes encoding known staphylococcal virulence factors, such as clumping factors, are either found in different allelic variants in the genomes of NVIR strains (compared to VIR strains) or are inactive pseudogenes

SUBMITTER: Bonar EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6136393 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature