Savage, VJ, Chopra, I and O'Neill, AJ (2013) Population diversification in Staphylococcus aureus biofilms may promote dissemination and persistence. PLoS One, 8 (4). e62513. ISSN 1932-6203
Abstract
The biofilm mode of growth can lead to diversification of the bacterial population by promoting the emergence of variants. Here we report the identification and characterization of two major subpopulations of morphological variants arising in biofilms of S. aureus. One of these lacked pigmentation (termed white variants; WVs), whilst the other formed colonies on agar that were larger and paler than the parental strain (termed large pale variants; LPVs). WVs were unable to form biofilms, and exhibited increased proteolysis and haemolysis; all phenotypes attributable to loss-of-function mutations identified in the gene encoding the alternative sigma factor, sigB. For LPVs, no differences in biofilm forming capacity or proteolysis were observed compared with the parental strain. Genetic analysis of LPVs revealed that they had undergone mutation in the accessory gene regulator system (agrA), and deficiency in agr was confirmed by demonstrating loss of both colony spreading and haemolytic activity. The observation that S. aureus biofilms elaborate large subpopulations of sigB and agr mutants, both genotypes that have independently been shown to be of importance in staphylococcal disease, has implications for our understanding of staphylococcal infections involving a biofilm component.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 Savage et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | Biofilms; Genetic Variation; Genotype; Humans; Phenotype; Staphylococcal Infections; Staphylococcus aureus |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Mar 2014 11:57 |
Last Modified: | 24 Jan 2018 10:45 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062513 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0062513 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:77642 |