Species-Wide Phylogenomics of the Staphylococcus aureus Agr Operon Revealed Convergent Evolution of Frameshift Mutations.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus aureus is a prominent nosocomial pathogen that causes several life-threatening diseases, such as pneumonia and bacteremia. S. aureus modulates the expression of its arsenal of virulence factors through sensing and integrating responses to environmental signals. The agr (accessory gene regulator) quorum sensing (QS) system is a major regulator of virulence phenotypes in S. aureus. There are four agr specificity groups each with a different autoinducer peptide sequence encoded by the agrD gene. Although agr is critical for the expression of many toxins, paradoxically, S. aureus strains often have nonfunctional agr activity due to loss-of-function mutations in the four-gene agr operon. To understand patterns in agr variability ac

SUBMITTER: Raghuram V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8768832 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature