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Infection and Immunity, March 2000, p. 1048-1053, Vol. 68, No. 3
Mikrobielle Genetik, Universität
Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Received 6 July 1999/Returned for modification 30 August
1999/Accepted 23 November 1999
The physiological significance of the accessory gene regulator
(agr) system of Staphylococcus epidermidis was
investigated by construction of an agr deletion mutant via
allelic replacement with a spectinomycin resistance cassette. Sodium
dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis
showed that the protein pattern was strongly altered in the
mutant; the amounts of most surface proteins were higher, whereas
the amounts of most exoproteins were lower. The agr
system of S. epidermidis thus appears to have an important
impact on growth phase-dependent protein synthesis as has been
shown for Staphylococcus aureus. The activity of the exoenzymes lipase and protease, assumed to be involved in
staphylococcal pathogenicity, was investigated by agar diffusion assays
and SDS-PAGE activity staining. A general reduction of these enzyme
activities in the agr mutant was found. The difference in
overall lipase activity was small, but zymographic analysis suggested a
clear defect in lipase processing in the agr mutant.
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Construction and Characterization of an
agr Deletion Mutant of Staphylococcus
epidermidis
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Mikrobielle
Genetik, Universität Tübingen, Waldhäuserstr. 70/8,
D-72076 Tübingen, Germany. Phone: 49-7071-2974648. Fax:
49-7071-295937. E-mail: michael.otto{at}uni-tuebingen.de.
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