Project description:Staphylococcus lugdunensis is a coagulase-negative Staphylococcus part of the commensal skin flora but emerge as an important opportunistic pathogen. Because iron limitation is a crucial stress during infectious process, we performed phenotypic study and compared proteomic profiles of this species incubated in absence and in presence of the iron chelator 2,2'-dipyridyl (DIP). No modification of cell morphology nor cell wall thickness were observed in presence of DIP. However iron-limitation condition promoted biofilm formation and reduced the ability to cope with oxidative stress (1 mM H2O2). In addition, S. lugdunensis N920143 cultured with DIP was significantly less virulent in the larvae of Galleria mellonella model of infection than that grown under standard conditions. We verified that these phenotypes were due to an iron limitation by complementation experiments with FeSO4. By mass spectrometry after trypsin digestion, we characterized the first iron-limitation stress proteome in S. lugdunensis. Among 1426 proteins identified, 349 polypeptides were differentially expressed. 222 were more and 127 less abundant in S. lugdunensis incubated in iron-limitation condition, and by RT-qPCR, some of the corresponding genes have been shown to be transcriptionally regulated. Our data revealed that proteins involved in iron metabolism and carriers were over-expressed, as well as several ABC transporters and polypeptides linked to cell wall metabolism. Conversely, enzymes playing a role in the oxidative stress response (especially catalase) were repressed. This phenotypic and global proteomic study allowed characterization of the response of S. lugdunensis to iron-limitation. We showed that iron-limitation promoted biofilm formation, but decrease the oxidative stress resistance that may, at least in part, explained the reduced virulence of S. lugdunensis observed under low iron condition.
Project description:Using RNAseq approach, we performed global a transcriptomic analysis of cells incubated in absence and in presence of iron chelator in Staphylocuccus lugdunensis. 175 genes were identified as members of the iron-limitation stimulon (127 up- and 48 down-regulated).
Project description:Staphylococcus lugdunensis is a coagulase negative Staphylococcus, recognized as a virulent pathogen. It is responsible for a wide variety of infections, some of which being associated with biofilm production, such as implanted medical devices infections or endocarditis. However, little is known about S. lugdunensis virulence regulation. Two-component regulatory systems (TCS) play critical roles in bacterial adaptation, survival and virulence. Among them, LytSR is widely conserved, but has variable roles in different organisms, all being connected to metabolism or cell death and lysis into biofilms. Therefore, we investigated here the functions of LytSR in S. lugdunensis pathogenesis. Deletion of lytSR in S. lugdunensis DSM 4804 strain did not alter neither the susceptibility to Triton X-100 induced autolysis nor the death induced by antibiotics targeting cell wall synthesis. Interestingly, ΔlytSR biofilm was characterized by a lower biomass, a lack of tower structures and a higher rate of dead cells compared to the wild-type strain. Virulence towards Caenorhabditis elegans using slow-killing assay was significantly reduced for the mutant compared to the wild-type strain. In contrast, the deletion of lytSR had no effect on S. lugdunensis cytotoxicity towards the human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. Transcriptional analyses conducted at mid- and late-exponential phases showed that lytSR deletion affected the expression of 286 genes. Most of them were involved in basic functions such as metabolism of amino acid, carbohydrates and nucleotides. Furthermore, LytSR appeared to be involved in the regulation of genes coding known or putative virulence and colonization factors, including the fibrinogen-binding protein Fbl, the major autolysin AtlL and the type VII secretion system. Overall, our data suggest that LytSR TCS is implicated in S. lugdunensis pathogenesis, through its involvement in biofilm formation and potentially by the control of genes encoding putative virulence factors.
Project description:Exploration of the the transcriptomic consequences of the complete deletion of agrA gene in Staphylococcus lugdunensis. Overall, the ΔagrA deletion significantly affected the expression of 400 genes. Among them, 149 were upregulated and 251 were downregulated.
