Hitchhiking motility of Staphylococcus aureus involves the interaction between its wall teichoic acids and lipopolysaccharide of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus aureus, which lacks pili and flagella, is nonmotile. However, it hitchhikes motile bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to migrate in the environment. This study demonstrated that the hitchhiking motility of S. aureus SA113 was reduced after the tagO, which encodes an enzyme for wall teichoic acids (WTA) synthesis, was deleted. The hitchhiking motility was restored after the mutation was complemented by transforming a plasmid expressing TagO into the mutant. We also showed that adding purified lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to a culture that contains S. aureus SA113 and P. aeruginosa PAO1, reduced the movement of S. aureus, showing that WTA and LPS are involved in the hitchhiking motility of S. aureus. This study also fo

SUBMITTER: Liu CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9849799 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature