Cell wall-affecting antibiotics modulate natural transformation in SigH-expressing Staphylococcus aureus

Thi, Le Thuy Nguyen; Romero, Veronica Medrano; Morikawa, Kazuya

doi:10.1038/ja.2015.132

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Reducing membrane permeability also contributes to limit the entrance of antimicrobials (Liu et al, 2000). However, the presence of antibiotics that affect the Staphylococcus cell wall have been shown to modulate natural transformation in a process that seems to be dependent of the alternative sigma fator H, SigH (Thi et al, 2016). In fact, the expression of SigH-controlled genes makes S. aureus cells competent for transformation by plasmids or chromosomal DNA (Morikawa et al, 2012), which in turn increases the probability of plasmid exchange between the cells within the biofilm.…”

Section: Biofilms As the Perfect Place For Horizontal Gene Transfer Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Underrated Staphylococcus species and their role in antimicrobial resistance spreading

2020

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The increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance has shed light on the interconnection between humans, animals, the environment, and their roles in the exchange and spreading of resistance genes. In this review, we present evidences that show that Staphylococcus species, usually referred to as harmless or opportunistic pathogens, represent a threat to human and animal health for acting as reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes. The capacity of genetic exchange between isolates of different sources and species of the Staphylococcus genus is discussed with emphasis on mobile genetic elements, the contribution of biofilm formation, and evidences obtained either experimentally or through genome analyses. We also discuss the involvement of CRISPR-Cas systems in the limitation of horizontal gene transfer and its suitability as a molecular clock to describe the history of genetic exchange between staphylococci.Given the increasing recognition of the importance of previously overlooked Staphylococcus species, the goal of this review was to present evidences that put these bacteria in the front row of resistance dissemination and highlight their potential threat to human and animal health.

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Section: Biofilms As the Perfect Place For Horizontal Gene Transfer Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Underrated Staphylococcus species and their role in antimicrobial resistance spreading

2020

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“…Listeria monocytogenes is a well-studied example, in which all the late competence genes are present and even upon excision of a prophage to allow expression of competence genes, transformation is still not observed (37). Other labs have reported that natural competence in Staphylococcus aureus cultures infrequently transform DNA (38, 39). Although experiments demonstrate that induction of comK results in transformable events while using plasmid DNA, chromosomal recombination events were very rare (40).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ComI inhibits transformation inBacillus subtilisby selectively killing competent cells

Smith,

Kearns,

Burton

2024

Preprint

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Many bacteria build elaborate molecular machines to import DNA via natural competence, yet this activity is often not identified until strains have been handled and domesticated in laboratory settings. For example, one of the best studied Gram-positive model organisms, Bacillus subtilis, has a non-transformable ancestor. Transformation in the ancestral strain is inhibited by a transmembrane peptide, ComI, which is encoded on an extrachromosomal plasmid. Although ComI was shown to be necessary and sufficient to inhibit transformation when produced at high levels under an inducible promoter, the mechanism by which ComI inhibits transformation is unknown. Here, we examine the native regulation and mechanism of transformation inhibition by ComI. We find that under native regulation, ComI expression is restricted in the absence of the plasmid. In the presence of the plasmid, we find that ComI is preferentially expressed in cells that are differentiating into a competent state. The subcellular localization of ComI, however, does not depend on any other competence proteins and permeabilization activity is concentration dependent. Thus over time, the competent cells gradually producing ComI, are permeabilized and killed. Based on these observations we propose a new model for the mechanism of ComI, suggesting a response to competence activation that selectively eliminates the competent subpopulation.

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“…Indeed, there is growing evidence that HGT rate can be influenced by the environmental changes. For example, it has been shown that natural competence of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is induced by reactive oxygen species, antibiotics and host defenses [23,24]. Importantly, the HGT rate is much higher between closely related organisms compared to distantly related ones thanks, primarily, to the high rate of homologous recombination [25][26][27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial diversity and ecological complexity emerging from environmental variation and horizontal gene transfer in a simple mathematical model

Babajanyan,

Garushyants,

Wolf

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Microbiomes are generally characterized by high diversity of coexisting microbial species and strains that remains stable within a broad range of conditions. However, under fixed conditions, microbial ecology conforms with the exclusion principle under which two populations competing for the same resource within the same niche cannot coexist because the less fit population inevitably goes extinct. To explore the conditions for stabilization of microbial diversity, we developed a simple mathematical model consisting of two competing populations that could exchange a single gene allele via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). We found that, although in a fixed environment, with unbiased HGT, the system obeyed the exclusion principle, in an oscillating environment, within large regions of the phase space bounded by the rates of reproduction and HGT, the two populations coexist. Moreover, depending on the parameter combination, all three major types of symbiosis obtained, namely, pure competition, host-parasite relationship and mutualism. In each of these regimes, certain parameter combinations provided for synergy, that is, a greater total abundance of both populations compared to the abundance of the winning population in the fixed environments. These findings show that basic phenomena that are universal in microbial communities, environmental variation and HGT, provide for stabilization of microbial diversity and ecological complexity.

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Cell wall-affecting antibiotics modulate natural transformation in SigH-expressing Staphylococcus aureus

Cited by 14 publications

References 19 publications

Underrated Staphylococcus species and their role in antimicrobial resistance spreading

Underrated Staphylococcus species and their role in antimicrobial resistance spreading

ComI inhibits transformation inBacillus subtilisby selectively killing competent cells

Microbial diversity and ecological complexity emerging from environmental variation and horizontal gene transfer in a simple mathematical model

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