Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus is a commensal inhabitant of skin and mucous membranes in nose vestibule but also an important opportunistic pathogen of humans and livestock. The extracellular proteome as a whole constitutes its major virulence determinant; however, the involvement of particular proteins is still relatively poorly understood. In this study, we compared the extracellular proteomes of poultry-derived S. aureus strains exhibiting a virulent (VIR) and non-virulent (NVIR) phenotype in a chicken embryo experimental infection model with the aim to identify proteomic signatures associated with the particular phenotypes. Despite significant heterogeneity within the analyzed proteomes, we identified alpha-haemolysin and bifunctional autolysin as indicators of virulence, whereas glutamylendopeptidase production was characteristic for non-virulent strains. Staphopain C (StpC) was identified in both the VIR and NVIR proteomes and the latter fact contradicted previous findings suggesting its involvement in virulence. By supplementing NVIR, StpC-negative strains with StpC, and comparing the virulence of parental and supplemented strains, we demonstrated that staphopain C alone does not affect staphylococcal virulence in a chicken embryo model.
Highlights
Staphylococci constitute an important component of physiological biocenosis of skin and nose vestibule mucous membranes in man and anterior nares in animals (Devriese, 1990; Chen and Tsao, 2013)
We have recently demonstrated a clear correlation between the genotype and the virulence level as evaluated in the chicken embryo model within a collection of poultry-derived S. aureus strains (Polakowska et al, 2012)
To identify the components of the extracellular proteome possibly involved in virulence, we paired the VIR strains with those belonging to the NVIR group according to the overall similarities within the electrophoretic patterns and compared their secreted proteomes using difference gel electrophoresis (DIGE)
Summary
Staphylococci constitute an important component of physiological biocenosis of skin and nose vestibule mucous membranes in man and anterior nares in animals (Devriese, 1990; Chen and Tsao, 2013). Species-specific adaptation is associated with acquisition and/or loss of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) (Malachowa and DeLeo, 2010; Lindsay, 2014) and with reorganization of the entire genomes (Sung et al, 2008; Smyth et al, 2009; Hata et al, 2010). The significant differences in virulence in the embryo model correlated with the strain genotype, which was not the case in the nematode model (Polakowska et al, 2012). This suggests species-specific adaptations in the repertoire of virulence determinants. Since host adaptation is clearly reflected in the organization of the entire genomes (Sung et al, 2008; Smyth et al, 2009; Hata et al, 2010), many adaptive processes are yet to be discovered
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