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Deletion of the alternative sigma factor sigmaB in Staphylococcus aureus reveals its function as a global regulator of virulence genes.

  • Kullik I Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, 8028 Zürich, Switzerland. ines.kullik-stax@eu.pnu.com
  • Giachino P
  • Fuchs T
  • 1998-09-12
Published in:
  • Journal of bacteriology. - 1998
Bacterial Proteins
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Genes, Bacterial
Hydrogen Peroxide
Lipase
Micrococcal Nuclease
Pigmentation
Sigma Factor
Staphylococcus aureus
Virulence
English A deletion of the sigB operon was constructed in three genetically distinct Staphylococcus aureus strains, and the phenotypes of the resulting mutants were analyzed. Compared to the corresponding wild-type strains, the DeltasigB mutants showed reduced pigmentation, accelerated sedimentation, and increased sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide during the stationary growth phase. A cytoplasmic protein missing in the DeltasigB mutants was identified as alkaline shock protein 23, and an extracellular protein excreted at higher levels in one of the DeltasigB mutants was identified as staphylococcal thermonuclease. Interestingly, most sigB deletion phenotypes were only seen in S. aureus COL and Newman and not in 8325, which was found to contain an 11-bp deletion in the regulator gene rsbU. Taken together, our results show that sigmaB is a global regulator which modulates the expression of several virulence factors in S. aureus and that laboratory strain 8325 is a sigmaB-defective mutant.
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  • English
Open access status
bronze
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/47906
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