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Coinduction of DNA Uptake and Fermentative Metabolism in Staphylococcus aureus During Infection

ABSTRACT: Pathogens that grow during infections must cope with the reactive oxygen species (ROS) released by host immune cells. Among the different strategies to prevent oxidative damage during infections, pathogenic bacteria have evolved mechanisms to reduce respiration and other cellular processes that are particularly sensitive to free radicals, obtaining energy preferentially by undergoing to fermentative metabolism. As fermentation produces fewer ATP per glucose than respiration, bacteria ensure an appropriate supply of energy by increasing the glycolytic flux. The opportunistic human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus is one such microbe but the underlying mechanism that enables S. aureus to induce fermentation during infections is still unclear. Here we show that the ComK-like regulator of natural competence that is present in many gram-positive bacteria is crucial to redirect S. aureus metabolism to fermentation during infection. ComK is cryptic in laboratory conditions but highly induced during infections or in response to infection-related cues, such as ROS. ComK induces the glycolytic flux and glucose consumption rate, a key step to redirect ATP production to fermentation. This licenses fermenting S. aureus to reduce oxidative damage while increasing DNA uptake by natural transformation. As a consequence, a comK-defective mutant shows an accumulation of ROS as well as DNA mutations that lower bacterial survival. This mutant shows no distinctive phenotype in laboratory conditions but is unable to cause infection in vertebrates or invertebrate infection models. ComK-mediated synchronization of natural transformation to fermentative metabolism may allow S. aureus, and probably other gram-positive bacteria, to use the fermentation acid end products to eliminate bacterial competitors while assimilating their DNA. Assimilated DNA may serve as a source of nucleotides for DNA repair or to promote genetic variability, thereby enabling a successful host colonization of this bacterium.

ORGANISM(S): Staphylococcus aureus

PROVIDER: GSE155016 | GEO | 2022/02/26

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:A promising alternative to antibiotics for treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infections is photodynamic inactivation (PDI), which employs a photosensitizer (PS) that produces cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) when exposed to molecular oxygen and antimicrobial blue light in the spectrum of 400-470 nm. Although the precise mechanistic basis of PDI has not been defined, the formation of ROS and free radicals that oxidize a number of cellular targets, including membrane lipids, damage to proteins and nucleic acids result in inactivation of essential cellular functions and subsequent cell death. Because PDI is non-selective and affects multiple cellular targets, development of resistance or tolerance to PDI has been considered to be unlikely and attempts to induce S. aureus resistance or tolerance upon repeated sub-lethal doses of PDI have not succeeded. However, multiple aspects of PDI suggest that development of tolerance is highly probable, in particular when PDI is used for treatment of infections where the environment at the infection site prevents penetration of PDI at a level sufficient to cause death of all bacteria and with tolerant phenotypes emerging from the surviving bacteria. In this study, we sought to identify the mechanisms that contribute to PDI tolerance in S. aureus. S. aureus HG003 and the isogenic HG003DmutSL strain with defects in DNA mismatch repair were used to evaluate the response of S. aureus and the roles of DNA mismatch repair and gene regulatory networks to repeated sublethal doses of PDI. Global transcriptome and genome analyses were used in an agnostic approach to identify the underlying transcriptional responses and genetic adaptations that occur as a result of repeated PDI and contribute to PDI tolerance. Our results reveal multiple metabolic, transport and cell wall biogenesis pathways that contribute to PDI tolerance, and a S. aureus regulatory gene likely responsible for the adaptive transcriptional response to PDI.