The Ubiquitous Human Skin Commensal Staphylococcus hominis Protects against Opportunistic Pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus hominis is frequently isolated from human skin, and we hypothesize that it may protect the cutaneous barrier from opportunistic pathogens. We determined that S. hominis makes six unique autoinducing peptide (AIP) signals that inhibit the major virulence factor accessory gene regulator (agr) quorum sensing system of Staphylococcus aureus. We solved and confirmed the structures of three novel AIP signals in conditioned medium by mass spectrometry and then validated synthetic AIP activity against all S. aureus agr classes. Synthetic AIPs also inhibited the conserved agr system in a related species, Staphylococcus epidermidis. We determined the distribution of S. hominis agr types on healthy human skin and found S. hominis agr-I and agr-

SUBMITTER: Severn MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9239047 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature