Korem Moshe, Gov Yael, Kiran Madanahally D, Balaban Naomi
Department of Human Microbiology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Infect Immun. 2005 Oct;73(10):6220-8. doi: 10.1128/IAI.73.10.6220-6228.2005.
Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive bacterium that is part of the normal healthy flora but that can become virulent and cause infections by producing biofilms and toxins. The production of virulence factors is regulated by cell-cell communication (quorum sensing) through the histidine phosphorylation of target of RNAIII-activating protein (TRAP), which is a 21-kDa protein that is highly conserved among staphylococci. Using microarray analysis, we show here that the expression and phosphorylation of TRAP upregulate the expression of most, if not all, toxins known to date, as well as their global regulator agr. In addition, we show here that the expression and phosphorylation of TRAP are also necessary for the expression of genes known to be necessary for the survival of the bacteria in a biofilm, like arc, pyr, and ure. TRAP is thus demonstrated to be a master regulator of staphylococcal pathogenesis.
金黄色葡萄球菌是一种革兰氏阳性菌,它是正常健康菌群的一部分,但可通过产生生物膜和毒素而变得具有毒性并引发感染。毒力因子的产生通过RNAIII激活蛋白(TRAP)的靶标的组氨酸磷酸化,由细胞间通讯(群体感应)调节,TRAP是一种21 kDa的蛋白质,在葡萄球菌中高度保守。通过微阵列分析,我们在此表明,TRAP的表达和磷酸化上调了迄今为止已知的大多数(如果不是全部)毒素以及它们的全局调节因子agr的表达。此外,我们在此表明,TRAP的表达和磷酸化对于生物膜中细菌生存所必需的基因(如arc、pyr和ure)的表达也是必需的。因此,TRAP被证明是葡萄球菌致病机制的主要调节因子。