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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #367112
Research Project: Characterization and Mitigation of Bacterial Pathogens in the Fresh Produce Production and Processing Continuum

Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory

Title: Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals differentially expressed genes related to antimicrobial properties of lysostaphin in Staphylococcus aureus

Author
item Yan, Xianghe
item Xie, Yanping
item Li, Charles
item Donovan, David
item Gehring, Andrew
item Irwin, Peter
item He, Yiping

Submitted to: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/11/2022
Publication Date: 1/18/2022
Citation: Yan, X., Xie, Y., Li, C.C., Donovan, D.M., Gehring, A.G., Irwin, P.L., He, Y. 2022. Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals differentially expressed genes related to antimicrobial properties of lysostaphin in Staphylococcus aureus. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 11(2):125. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11020125.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11020125

Interpretive Summary: Lysostaphin, an enzyme named glycyl-glycine bacteriocin peptidoglycan hydrolase (PGH), can degrade S. aureus cell wall and result in cell death. Combination of lysostaphin with antibiotics appears to be effective against Staphylococcus strains. However, multiple resistance to lysostaphin and many other antibiotics have been developed in S. aureus. In this paper, we were interested in identifying generic resistance mechanisms to PGH via comparing wild-type and PGH resistant strains using whole genome sequencing and transcriptome (RNA-seq) analysis. Our results showed expression and structure changes in the genes encoding membrane/cell surface proteins, suggesting the perturbation probably contributes to the increased resistance of S. aureus to lysostaphin. The findings of this work could provide insight into the design of new antimicrobial agents.

Technical Abstract: Comparative transcriptome analysis and de novo short-read transcriptome assembly of S. aureus Newman revealed significant transcriptional changes in response to the exposure of triple-acting staphylolytic peptidoglycan hydrolase (PGH) 1801. Most altered transcriptions are associated with the membrane, cell wall, and their related genes, including amidase, peptidase, holin, and phospholipase D/transphosphatidylase, etc. The differential expression of genes obtained from RNA-seq was confirmed by reverse transcription qPCR. Moreover, some of these gene changed are consistent with the observed structural changes at the DNA and RNA levels. These structural changes present in the genes encoding membrane/cell surface proteins and the perturbation gene expression are the candidate genes for putative resistance to these novel antimicrobials. The findings of this work could provide insight into the design of new antimicrobial agents.