Seidl, Kati Bischoff, Markus Berger-Bächi, Brigitte <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:p>Some clinical isolates of <jats:italic>Staphylococcus aureus</jats:italic> produce the superantigenic toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), encoded by <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic>, located on pathogenicity islands. The expression of <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> is complex and is influenced by environmental conditions such as pH, CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>, and glucose. We identified a putative catabolite-responsive element (<jats:italic>cre</jats:italic>) in the promoter regions of all known <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> genes, indicating that <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> transcription may be regulated by the catabolite control protein CcpA. By introducing <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> genes under the control of their native promoters or <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> promoter-reporter gene fusions in wild-type strain Newman, we showed that glucose was able to repress <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> transcription and TSST-1 production, whereas glucose repression was abolished in the corresponding Δ<jats:italic>ccpA</jats:italic> mutant. Stabilizing the pH ruled out a pH effect due to acid production during glucose catabolism. CcpA thus directly regulates <jats:italic>tst</jats:italic> transcription, linking carbohydrate utilization to virulence gene expression in <jats:italic>S. aureus</jats:italic>.</jats:p> application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/54288 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1128/iai.00724-08 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0019-9567 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Infection and Immunity. - American Society for Microbiology. - 2008, vol. 76, no. 11, p. 5093-5099 Immunology Microbiology Parasitology Infectious Diseases CcpA Mediates the Catabolite Repression of tst in Staphylococcus aureus http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501