Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (May 2016)

Identification of secreted exoproteome fingerprints of highly-virulent and non-virulent Staphylococcus aureus strains.

  • Emilia eBonar,
  • Iwona eWojcik,
  • Urszula eJankowska,
  • Sylwia eKedracka-Krok,
  • Sylwia eKedracka-Krok,
  • Michal eBukowski,
  • Klaudia ePolakowska,
  • Marcin W Lis,
  • Maja eKosecka-Strojek,
  • Artur J Sabat,
  • Grzegorz eDubin,
  • Grzegorz eDubin,
  • Alex W. Friedrich,
  • Jacek eMiedzobrodzki,
  • Adam eDubin,
  • Benedykt eWladyka

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00051
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6

Abstract

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Staphylococcus aureus is a commensal inhabitant of skin and mucous membranes in nose vestibule but also an important opportunistic pathogen of humans and livestock. The extracellular proteome as a whole constitutes its major virulence determinant; however, the involvement of particular proteins is still relatively poorly understood. In this study, we compared the extracellular proteomes of poultry-derived S. aureus strains exhibiting a virulent (VIR) and non-virulent (NVIR) phenotype in a chicken embryo experimental infection model with the aim to identify proteomic signatures associated with the particular phenotypes. Despite significant heterogeneity within the analyzed proteomes, we identified alpha-haemolysin and bifunctional autolysin as indicators of virulence, whereas glutamylendopeptidase production was characteristic for non-virulent strains.Staphopain C (StpC) was identified in both the VIR and NVIR proteomes and the latter fact contradicted previous findings suggesting its involvement in virulence. By supplementing NVIR, StpC-negative strains with StpC and comparing the virulence of parental and supplemented strains, we demonstrated that staphopain C alone does not affect staphylococcal virulence in a chicken embryo model.

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