Abstract
Staphylococcus epidermidis is a ubiquitous commensal of human skin. The widespread use of indwelling medical devices in modern medicine provides an opportunity for it to cause infections. Disease causing isolates can come from many different genetic backgrounds. Multiply antibiotic resistant strains have spread globally. S. epidermidis has a smaller repertoire of cell wall anchored (CWA) surface proteins than Staphylococcus aureus. Nevertheless, these CWA proteins promote adhesion to components of the extracellular matrix including collagen, fibrinogen, and fibronectin and contribute to the formation of biofilm. The A domain of the accumulation associated protein Aap can promote adhesion to unconditioned biomaterial but must be removed proteolytically to allow accumulation to proceed by homophilic Zn2+-dependent interactions. Mature biofilm contains amyloid structures formed by Aap and the small basic protein (Sbp). The latter contributes to the integrity of both protein and polysaccharide biofilm matrices. Several other CWA proteins can also promote S. epidermidis biofilm formation.
Highlights
Staphylococcus epidermidis is a ubiquitous and primarily harmless commensal of human skin compared to the more pathogenic coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus (Becker et al, 2014)
Autolysins and Other Surface Associated Proteins It has been suggested that autolysins, AtlE and Aae, promote S. epidermidis adhesion to immobilized plasma proteins vitronectin, fibronectin, and fibrinogen and that they could be involved in initiating biofilm formation on conditioned biomaterial surfaces (Heilmann et al, 1997, 2003)
Embp and Biofilm Formation Overexpression of the giant surface protein Embp in vitro by a clinical isolate of S. epidermidis that lacks both ica and aap genes led to clustering of planktonic cells and to biofilm formation (Christner et al, 2010)
Summary
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Infectious Diseases, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. Disease causing isolates can come from many different genetic backgrounds. S. epidermidis has a smaller repertoire of cell wall anchored (CWA) surface proteins than Staphylococcus aureus. These CWA proteins promote adhesion to components of the extracellular matrix including collagen, fibrinogen, and fibronectin and contribute to the formation of biofilm. Mature biofilm contains amyloid structures formed by Aap and the small basic protein (Sbp). The latter contributes to the integrity of both protein and polysaccharide biofilm matrices. Several other CWA proteins can promote S. epidermidis biofilm formation
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