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Infection and Immunity, November 2008, p. 5093-5099, Vol. 76, No. 11
0019-9567/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00724-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

CcpA Mediates the Catabolite Repression of tst in Staphylococcus aureus{triangledown}

Kati Seidl,1 Markus Bischoff,1,2 and Brigitte Berger-Bächi1*

Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland,1 Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Saarland Hospital, Homburg/Saar, Germany2

Received 9 June 2008/ Returned for modification 9 July 2008/ Accepted 6 August 2008

Some clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus produce the superantigenic toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), encoded by tst, located on pathogenicity islands. The expression of tst is complex and is influenced by environmental conditions such as pH, CO2, and glucose. We identified a putative catabolite-responsive element (cre) in the promoter regions of all known tst genes, indicating that tst transcription may be regulated by the catabolite control protein CcpA. By introducing tst genes under the control of their native promoters or tst promoter-reporter gene fusions in wild-type strain Newman, we showed that glucose was able to repress tst transcription and TSST-1 production, whereas glucose repression was abolished in the corresponding {Delta}ccpA mutant. Stabilizing the pH ruled out a pH effect due to acid production during glucose catabolism. CcpA thus directly regulates tst transcription, linking carbohydrate utilization to virulence gene expression in S. aureus.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland. Phone: 41 44 634 26 50. Fax: 41 44 634 49 06. E-mail: bberger{at}immv.uzh.ch

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 18 August 2008.

Editor: A. J. Bäumler

Infection and Immunity, November 2008, p. 5093-5099, Vol. 76, No. 11
0019-9567/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00724-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Somerville, G. A., Proctor, R. A. (2009). At the Crossroads of Bacterial Metabolism and Virulence Factor Synthesis in Staphylococci. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 73: 233-248 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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